Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Two weeks ago, we saw Labor's concerns come to fruition, with dnata workers losing their jobs. This is a direct result of this government's stubbornness to leave some workers behind. Back in May, the government refused to include workers who worked for a number of companies and universities in JobKeeper. That has real consequences for Australian workers and Australian families. We are now seeing those consequences play out, with a thousand dnata workers being made redundant two weeks ago. In my local area in South Australia a number of workers have now lost their jobs. This was entirely preventable. The government should have acted on Labor's warnings and unions' warnings that these workers would lose their jobs if the government did not take action. We warned of this back in May. Unfortunately, this government has failed to act and we are now seeing the consequences. My heart goes out to all those workers who no longer have jobs as a result of this government's inaction. I urge the government, as do unions, Labor and many others in the community, not to leave these workers behind. Give them the support they need, because they deserve to be on JobKeeper, just like other Australian workers in this country.