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

What I'm saying is that you're not giving the businesses out there any guarantee that they're going to get people who actually want to go to work—who will turn up to work. Why didn't the government actually look at having this law—you were going to cut it off in September, and I understand what's happening in Victoria and the problems down there because of poor leadership by Daniel Andrews, but you are actually going to extend this out for seven months. Give me any reason why this should not have been cut off by the end of November, having seen how the economy was travelling at that time and how businesses were recovering, to encourage people to go out there and start working instead of being supported by the government.

I truly believe that this is why the states are keeping the borders shut, particularly here in Queensland. It has a political motivation. People are getting paid these JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments; they're reluctant to go back to work. It's destroyed tourism and industry here in Queensland and there are no incentives for people to go back to work. Why doesn't the government actually cut it off at the end of November and reassess it then? We'd come back to parliament in December and you could actually extend it at that time.