RICHARD MARLES MP
DEPUTY LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY
SHADOW MINISTER FOR NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION, EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS AND SMALL BUSINESS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SCIENCE
MEMBER FOR CORIO

JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

JOBS LOST THANKS TO BUNGLED VACCINE ROLLOUT

As the nation’s COVID-19 health crisis deepens, more working Australian families are hurting as a direct result of the Morrison Government’s 18 months of failures on vaccines and quarantine.

ABS data shows that payroll jobs have fallen in every State and Territory and are now lower in New South Wales than they were at the start of the pandemic.

Nationally, payroll jobs are down 2.4 per cent on last fortnight, with workers in accommodation and food services hardest hit.

The Australian economy is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars a day and billions of dollars a week as a direct consequence of Scott Morrison’s failures on vaccines and quarantine.

Today’s data provides just a glimpse of just how hard small business has been hit with payroll jobs, falling by almost 7 per cent over the fortnight.

For eighteen months Labor has been warning that the nation’s economic recovery is hostage to the vaccine rollout.

With the nation’s largest economy in a protracted lockdown, Scott Morrison’s botched vaccine rollout is hurting workers and small businesses, and risking our economic recovery.

We wouldn't be in this position if Scott Morrison had done his job on vaccines and quarantine.  

We’ll have more of these lockdowns for longer until Scott Morrison gets his act together and fixes the vaccine rollout, fixes quarantine, and provides the right kind of help that workers and small businesses are crying out for. 

We can’t have a first-rate jobs and economic recovery with a third-rate vaccine rollout.