Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The amendment that we are fighting for today is about one thing and one thing only: whether or not the government's legislation will encourage employers to sack their workers. That's all that we're on about today. It's about whether or not people will have the opportunity to sack their workers in order to qualify for the government's hiring credit.

At a time when there are already a million unemployed in this country, with another 160,000 people expected to join the unemployment queues; at a time when the labour market wasn't real flash even before COVID-19 showed up; at a time when we're in the deepest, most damaging recession for almost a century; and at a time when we are in the teeth of a full-blown jobs crisis, the government's priority here is to oppose a sensible amendment that is all about whether or not employers can sack their workers to qualify for this hiring credit. If they think that it should be easier for employers to sack their workers during this recession, they should come to that dispatch box and just say so. They should have the courage to say that that's what they're all about.

We've had concerns about this hiring credit all along. We've said that we are prepared to support it but we're worried about the 928,000 unemployed Australians over 35 years old who've been deliberately excluded. We've been worried about the capacity for employers to sack workers. We've been worried about the fact that they announced this would be 450,000 additional jobs but we know from Treasury and estimates it's more like 45,000 additional jobs. We want to help those opposite get this right. They've got form when it comes to getting some of these labour market programs wrong. Restart for over 50s has been a diabolical failure from go to whoa. We want to help them get it right. The government have the time to get this right; the payments do not even flow until February. They'll pretend that whatever we do here and in the Senate is somehow preventing money from getting out in the community. That is absolute rubbish. The payments don't flow until February in any case. They've got the time to get it right. They've got an opportunity here to do something, for once, to stand up for Australian workers.

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