3 years ago
Sports rorts; JobKeeper and JobSeeker.
JOSH BURNS MP
JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA:Well good morning everyone, and we are back at Parliament. The Prime Minister likes to talk about a snap-back of the economy. But what he doesn't want is a snap-back of our democracy. He refused to answer questions yesterday about yesterday about the ‘sportsrorts’. He did it in a really dismissive way to our journalists who are asking legitimate questions about Government spending. And we also found out today that there are more Liberal MPs who want to cut the JobKeeper package, who want to cut the JobKeeper supplement for people and Australians who need it. Anthony Albanese outlined yesterday the sort of Australia that we want to be a part of – a fairer, more prosperous and more sustainable Australia. And at the same time Scott Morrison and the Liberals, all they want to do is get back to their old ways of cuts and chaos. Any questions?
JOURNALIST: Don't we risk a welfare state, for example in Sydney yesterday where cab drivers aren’t working but they’re earning more money on the JobKeeper or JobSeeker than actually working, there’s a lot of examples of that. If we keep this extended, is there not a risk we become a welfare state effectively?
BURNS: What we've said from the very beginning is that the JobKeeper package can be more targeted. From the very outset, casuals and people on insecure work shouldn't have been left off this wage subsidy. Remember it was also the Prime Minister who said that this program needed to last for six months, for businesses and people to be able to get through this Coronavirus. What we don't need is the Prime Minister excluding people like what he's done and what we don't need is the constant speculation and uncertainty created by Liberal backbenchers who want to get rid of the JobKeeper package, who want to get rid of the JobSeeker supplement. It's not enough to live on $40 a day. We should be supporting people through the coronavirus and we should be rebuilding our economy afterwards. Thanks very much.
ENDS
JOURNALIST: Don't we risk a welfare state, for example in Sydney yesterday where cab drivers aren’t working but they’re earning more money on the JobKeeper or JobSeeker than actually working, there’s a lot of examples of that. If we keep this extended, is there not a risk we become a welfare state effectively?
BURNS: What we've said from the very beginning is that the JobKeeper package can be more targeted. From the very outset, casuals and people on insecure work shouldn't have been left off this wage subsidy. Remember it was also the Prime Minister who said that this program needed to last for six months, for businesses and people to be able to get through this Coronavirus. What we don't need is the Prime Minister excluding people like what he's done and what we don't need is the constant speculation and uncertainty created by Liberal backbenchers who want to get rid of the JobKeeper package, who want to get rid of the JobSeeker supplement. It's not enough to live on $40 a day. We should be supporting people through the coronavirus and we should be rebuilding our economy afterwards. Thanks very much.
ENDS