Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Financial Review reports today:

The Morrison government believes moving people from JobKeeper to JobSeeker beyond the end of September will maximise their employment prospects.

Why is the Prime Minister telling Australians that the best form of a job is welfare?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The article the member refers to does not contain direct quotes from me, so that is an editorial position that has been summarised by the Financial Review. I'll simply say this: the purpose of people going onto jobseeker is that you get people back into a job. That what being on unemployment benefits means to the government. In the government we believe that when someone loses a job and they go onto jobseeker the goal of that program, working with the employment services program, is to get people back into work.

It is absolutely the case that as the many months roll on there will be a time when businesses make decisions about how many employees they will be able to carry in the post-COVID economy and through the crisis. And for employees who are not in a position to have ongoing employment with a company we need to get them trained and get them into another job. That is how the system works. That is what the government is working night and day on, to ensure we get the right balance of income supports, job programs, employment services, skills training, cashflow assistance, tax reductions, lower regulation and infrastructure spending to ensure we get people back into work. We are fighting for the jobs of Australians. That's what our government are doing. Each and every day, we are fighting to get Australians back into work. The Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party are just simply fighting with each other.