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

There are a million Australians still on the JobKeeper program, and this is a fact that the government do not want to concede. They tell us all about those who are no longer on JobKeeper but they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that, for a million Australians who face the government's JobKeeper cuts at the end of this month, these will be a very uncertain couple of weeks.

But instead of treating the million Australians on JobKeeper and all those at risk of losing their job as a human problem to be avoided, those opposite, as always, treat them as a political problem to be managed. We know this because the Treasurer told his party room yesterday, he told the politicians in the Liberal and Nationals party room, that they had to brace for a couple of difficult months because of the withdrawal of JobKeeper—because of the Treasurer's cuts to JobKeeper, the politicians on that side opposite have to brace for a couple of difficult months! Doesn't that just say everything about the government's approach to managing these issues politically, rather than understanding that joblessness, particularly that caused by cuts to JobKeeper, is a human problem which must be avoided?

What those opposite don't understand is that the future of JobKeeper, the future of those million Australians, is in the government's hands. So any job losses which flow from cuts to JobKeeper at the end of this month and in the subsequent months will be on their heads. Why they don't understand that is because the Treasurer cannot understand, from the leafy suburbs that he occupies, what life looks like and what life feels like for so many Australians who aren't enjoying the economic recovery that he congratulates himself for. He is so lost in self-congratulation and in taking credit for what the Australian people have achieved together by doing the right thing by each other during this pandemic—doing the right thing so that we can recover and so we can come out of this recession, the deepest most damaging recession in almost a century. He is so busy taking credit for that that he can't understand that some people are still doing it really tough. He is the poster child for a government with a big head and a very cold heart. We know that because no government which truly understood what is happening in the suburbs and towns of this country would be cutting JobKeeper at the end of this month.

Remember—and we remember—that those opposite said one of the reasons why they can cut JobKeeper at the end of this month is that they will have four million vaccinations out of the way. As The Shovel and others have pointed out on social media, they're approximately four million short of that four million target when it comes to vaccinations! So they are very quick to cut support out of the economy but very slow to deliver all of those vaccinations that they promised.

The Treasurer was at the BCA last night, and we support the fact he addressed the BCA last night. He talked about how there was a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to this crisis. For those million Australians, that light at the end of the tunnel is a locomotive and it's coming at them very fast—the weekend after next!—where all of those people at risk of losing their jobs don't know what the future holds.

The reality is that if you cut JobKeeper in these uncertain times, you cut jobs. It's as simple as that. The Reserve Bank has warned, the OECD has warned and others have said a really big risk right now is declaring mission accomplished over this recession too soon and pulling the rug out from under small businesses too soon, before they have recovered sufficiently to hold onto their staff. It is true that the economy is recovering. To some extent that is inevitable, given the trough that we were in last year. With the reopening of state economies and all of the good work that Australians have done, as I said, there is a recovery from this recession. Every time there's a pleasing development in the economy, we have all welcomed it. We've said that's a good thing. At the same time as we've acknowledged the pleasing parts about this recovery, we've said that those opposite need to acknowledge the difficult parts as well. Those businesses impacted by distancing, those businesses impacted by the closure of the international border and all of the people that they employ are up for a very difficult period ahead. There's a lot of uncertainty in the economy still as we come out of this recession.

The labour market is in nowhere near good enough condition for those opposite to be patting themselves on the back. That's another point made by the Reserve Bank and others. We are nowhere near full employment; we have serious issues with wages; we have two million Australians who are either unemployed or can't find enough hours to support their loved ones. There's a million on JobKeeper, as I said, and millions more are dealing with stagnant wages, which have been a defining feature of the economy under those opposite, even before anyone had heard of coronavirus.

It remains to be seen how many jobs will be lost. This week, a number of my colleagues, in the context of their own communities, have asked: how many of the thousands of people being supported by JobKeeper in our electorates, in our communities, does the government expect will lose their jobs when the Treasurer and the Prime Minister cut JobKeeper at the end of the month? The Treasurer, of course, talks about those who are no longer on JobKeeper. That's one thing. But he cannot recognise the people who are still on it and still need that help. They talk about graduation day as if people who are losing their jobs or finding another job deserve a little hat to throw in the air at the end of the ceremony. Unfortunately, when it comes to the end of this month, too many Australians will graduate into joblessness and onto the JobSeeker payment because of the actions taken by those opposite.

We don't know how many that will be. The Treasury expects 100,000 people will hit the wall at the end of March and in the subsequent months. The Commonwealth Bank says it will be 110,000. One of Australia's most respected labour market economists said it could be anywhere up to 250,000. We hope that that's not the case. We genuinely hope we see nothing like that. But the risk is there, and those opposite are not doing anything to avoid that risk.

There is absolutely nothing which resembles a jobs plan to replace JobKeeper. As the member for Maribyrnong said on the TV and as a number of my colleagues have said in recent days, the tax cuts are no good to you if you don't have a job. JobMaker is no good if you are over 35; it deliberately excludes a million people from that program. The half-price airfares are nowhere near enough to save these jobs which are at risk. What we say to the Prime Minister is: dressing up as a pilot with a little pilot's hat and waving around a fake airline ticket is no substitute for the jobs plan and the JobKeeper extension that we need to make sure that people aren't thrown onto the scrap heap because of the decisions taken by those opposite. None of us have said that JobKeeper needs to be a permanent feature in the budget. We all recognise that, at some point, as JobKeeper tapers and as it's targeted, it will trail away. We've all said that, and it will be a good thing if the economy doesn't need JobKeeper anymore, but the truth is that it does. We understand that on this side, even if those opposite do not. The economy still needs JobKeeper. It needs to be targeted and responsible and temporary, but many are not yet ready to shed JobKeeper because that will mean shedding jobs.

That little ticket, which the Prime Minister waved around at that comical press conference that he had in the Qantas hangar with the little hat on, playing pilot and all the rest of it, is a ticket for joblessness for too many Australians. I'm distracted because of the references to Flying High, which I'm trying to avoid, in comments behind me! To make things worse, in the Senate this week—we are debating this at the moment—instead of a jobs plan, instead of something reasonable and responsible on JobKeeper, what have we got instead from those opposite? We've got cuts to wages, cuts to JobKeeper, cuts to super and some of the diabolical plans that the member for Dunkley asked about in question time today. This is the government's agenda. At the same time as they say that there's no blank cheque to support workers in our economy, we've got a budget which is absolutely riddled with rorts, top to bottom: dodgy deals for mates; sports rorts; a billion dollars in advertising; market research; the debacle which is the subs; taxpayer funded executive bonuses—the list goes on and on. These are the government's priorities: cuts to JobKeeper, cuts to wages, cuts to super and a budget riddled with rorts.

It's for us to decide what kind of future we have as we emerge from the deepest, most damaging recession in almost 100 years. What will determine the kind of recovery we have is the kinds of jobs that we create, and every single one of us on this side of the House want to see secure, well-paid jobs with fair conditions created as we come out of this recession. We don't want to see the defining features of the pre-COVID economy re-emerge with the weak wages and weak investment and all the rest of it. We will continue to be on the side of those workers and small businesses who need help for a little longer.

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