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

One Nation will be supporting this motion. It is true that the JobSeeker COVID supplement was set so high that it provided a disincentive to work. Once the rate reverts next month, JobSeeker will be too low for the unemployed to live on. This will make finding a job harder, not easier—$282 a week is not work incentive; it's punishment. If increasing JobSeeker temporarily to the ridiculous amount of $550 a week was good economic policy to assist the recovery, a much smaller permanent increase must also be good policy. The Morrison government's opposition to an increase in JobSeeker and pensions makes no sense. It's an embarrassment to conservatives, and I urge the government to reconsider. While this motion does not put a figure on the desired increase, One Nation supports a $75 a week increase in JobSeeker and pensions effective immediately.

Question agreed to.