Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] Minister, it is unprecedented to have the COVID that has hit Australia and worldwide. Of course, we had to put measures in place to ensure that people—those on JobSeeker and JobKeeper—were protected. The fact is that the government has made a huge mistake by putting people on JobKeeper, in light of the fact that it is $1,500 a fortnight, when a lot of these people were earning only possibly around $400 or $500 a week. So you have actually overpaid them.

What you've done, in light of that, is set a precedent in this country. People expect those high payments. Now you're trying to get out of it, but people are getting paid this money from the government and they don't want to go back to work. People are getting paid. Prior to COVID, on 27 April, we had approximately 727,000 people on Newstart allowance. Immediately, those people went onto JobSeeker, with an increase of $550 a fortnight. Their circumstances have not changed whatsoever, but you put them on that. Then you actually started JobKeeper, to connect people with businesses. Regardless of the number of hours that they worked, you put them on $1,500 a fortnight.

What we've found now—I'm hearing this from businesses—is that people don't want to go back to work. We have the agricultural sector. People who want their fruit picked can't even get workers. No-one wants to apply for the job, because they're getting paid more on JobSeeker and JobKeeper. I heard about an accountant. A kid who goes to work three days a week for an accountant said: 'I'm not going to come into work. Why should I work? I get paid more on JobKeeper.' These are the circumstances in which it is happening.

What I can't understand is why you are passing this bill today, with the support of Labor, to take it out to seven months. Admittedly, you are reining it in, so JobSeeker is now going to go down from $1,115 a fortnight to $815 a fortnight, but you're going to give them $300 a fortnight, which they can actually make. They can go out and work for it. Then you've got JobKeeper, which is actually going to be reduced as well, to $1,200 a fortnight. But that is not actually encouraging businesses or people to go to work. My question is: what are you going to do? Why extend it out to March when it should've actually just been taken out to November to see if we are recovering? You are actually saying to people out there: 'Don't bother going to work. Don't bother finding a job, because we're going to keep paying you till March next year.' You're actually putting so much pressure on businesses out there—