Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) Share this | Hansard source

Labor supports this disallowance. We do not think this is the right time to withdraw support from the Australian economy. We do not think that this is the right time to withdraw support from Australian businesses. We do not think that this is the right time to withdraw support from people whose jobs and livelihoods are on the line. And on this basis we can't support a $300 reduction in this payment at this time.

Last night's budget was extraordinarily and deeply disappointing. We're in the grip of the most serious recession in almost 100 years. Businesses are closing, hours are being cut and, sadly, people are losing their jobs. The government, we believe, had the opportunity to significantly improve the lives of those doing it tough. Instead, their budget persists with ill-timed cuts to payments like JobSeeker and JobKeeper. And the Liberals' proposed cuts to JobKeeper are coming at the worst possible time for many, many workers, businesses and communities. A small-business owner in Penshurst in the south of Sydney said: 'If JobKeeper is cut, I think our business would close within a few months. We are a travel company and have been without income since February, when people stopped travelling. We have given up our office, sold or even given away office furniture and cancelled most contractors to save money. If people don't start buying from travel agents, I fear many of us will be closing before the end of the year.'

As the opposition in this chamber, we don't choose the structure of the legislation and regulations we're asked to respond to. Labor is supportive of better targeting the JobKeeper payment through tiered arrangements. However, we do not support lowering the rate of JobKeeper from $1,500 to $1,200. It is on this basis that we will be supporting Senator Faruqi's disallowance motion. Labor has always said that the arrangements needed to be tailored to the economic conditions, and we know they won't continue forever. But we know what the economy looks like today and how tough Australians are doing it right now.

This government loves to talk about how good they are for the economy, for businesses, for regional Australia, but they continue to leave them in the lurch. Their budget completely ignored the disproportionate impact of this recession on women. They failed to acknowledge the massive job losses in female dominated industries and proposed no new measures to end the gender pay gap, improve women's super balances or address family and domestic violence. Now they want to cut JobKeeper and push more people into economic limbo, unsure about where their next pay cheque will come from. Australians deserve much better from this government.