Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Kitching for the question, but, Senator Kitching, I actually disagree with the premise of what you're putting. Senator Cormann was, of course, right to say that people who are currently unemployed will have more success in obtaining a job as each individual state and territory eases its COVID restrictions. That is the point that Senator Cormann was actually making. As Senator Cormann has so rightly said: we have a Labor Premier in Mark McGowan in Western Australia. We are moving, Senator Cormann, if I understand, to stage 2—to 20 people—as of Monday. That has been widely welcomed in Western Australia, but in particular by the hospitality industry, who know they are a step ahead of those states and territories that have not yet moved to 20 people. You look at what's happening in the Northern Territory and how that has been welcomed by people in the Northern Territory. So Senator Cormann was right: someone—in that case, a person who does not have a job—has more of a chance of getting a job, the faster that individual states open up their economies. That is what Senator Cormann was saying.