E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
LOGAN
WEDNESDAY, 6 MAY 2020
SUBJECTS: JobKeeper; The impact of Coronavirus on the economy; Paying back debt; Wages.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: The JobKeeper payments are rolling out this week and that's a good thing. The JobKeeper payments were supported by Labor through the Parliament. They have the capacity to help millions of Australian workers and that's a good thing as well. Unfortunately, we know from what the Treasurer has told us today that the implementation of the otherwise-welcome JobKeeper payments is being badly mishandled. It is troubling to hear that more than a million workers so far, that the Government expected to be able to access JobKeeper payments, are not able to do so. Not because there isn't the need for workers to access these payments, but because it is too hard, and because the Government is mishandling the payment of these otherwise-welcome wage subsidies.
The Treasurer is fumbling the rollout of the JobKeeper program and Australian workers can't afford for him to drop the ball completely. JobKeeper is a good idea being badly implemented, badly communicated, and too many workers are being left out and left behind. That's been the feedback from the business community right throughout. When the Treasurer says that this program is coming in under budget what he really means is that it is too hard for too many businesses and too many workers to access the scheme itself.
What the Treasurer doesn't seem to recognise is that the longer the unemployment queues get during this crisis, the longer it will take Australia to recover from this crisis. When the unemployment rate spikes in the next few weeks, every Australian worker needs to know that the unemployment queue is longer than necessary because Josh Frydenberg is refusing to include deserving workers in the JobKeeper scheme and not allowing those payments to flow to all of those workers.
Everybody wants the economy to reopen, everybody wants businesses to reopen. We all want workers to go back to work when it's safe to do so. But by botching this JobKeeper scheme, the Government is making itself part of the problem and not part of the solution. JobKeeper has the capacity to do remarkable things for millions of Australian workers, but too many of them have been left out and left behind by the Government's decision to exclude casuals and other workers. Confusion reigns because of the Government's poor communication of the eligibility for this scheme. There are two days to go for businesses to register for this scheme, to make their workers eligible for the program. For too long now, there has been too much confusion in the business community and in the broader community about who is eligible and how they access these payments. This is a good idea being badly implemented, badly communicated, and the Treasurer is leaving too many workers out and too many workers are being left behind as a consequence.
JOURNALIST: The Treasurer says even if the uptake doesn't hit the six million mark, they are not going to be expanding it to casuals. Do you think that that whole $130 billion should be used? What's your response?
CHALMERS: I think it's possible for the Government to expand the JobKeeper scheme to more Australian workers. Wage subsidies are based on a very sound idea, that we support wholeheartedly, that governments should be doing what they can to keep as many workers as possible attached to their employer during this extraordinary health and economic crisis. That's the whole idea of the JobKeeper scheme. If that's true of the workers who are accessing this scheme already, it should be true of more workers including casuals who might have been working in the same industry for a long time, but who have changed employers within the last 12 months. We've been saying that all along.
The Treasurer wants people to think that the fact that he's fallen short by something like a million workers so far is some kind of triumph when in reality it means that for too many businesses and for too many workers, it's been too confusing or too hard to access. Too many Australian workers have been left out and left behind. He has the capacity under the legislation to fix up the gaps in this JobKeeper program. He has the capacity to clear up and more clearly communicate eligibility to business. We want him to do that because the longer the unemployment queues get, the harder it will be for our economy and our society to recover from what has been a diabolical challenge to our economy.
JOURNALIST: What do you think about the likely underspend in JobKeeper?
CHALMERS: When the Treasurer says that it's coming in under budget, what he really means is far more Australian workers have been excluded from this scheme than they anticipated. That's not a good thing, that's a bad thing. JobKeeper has the capacity to do a heap of good in our workforce and in our broader community as well. That's why we supported it through the Parliament. We want it to work effectively and we want it to be successful. But the confusion around it, the poor communication, the fumbled implementation, the exemptions and the exclusions from the JobKeeper payments mean that many more Australians will join the unemployment queue as a consequence of the Government's decisions than is necessary. When unemployment spikes in the next little while, and it will, Australians need to know that the unemployment rate is higher than it needed to be because of the way the Government's gone about this.
JOURNALIST: In terms of public sector cuts, do you believe Frydenberg when he says there won't be any cuts to pay down debt?
CHALMERS: It remains to be seen. Unfortunately, this Government has form; in 2014 it asked the most vulnerable people in our society to carry the heaviest burden for paying back the debt. The Government is racking up a massive amount of debt in dealing with this crisis. We understand at times like these there is a case to do what can be done to protect jobs in particular in the economy, and that inevitably means more government spending and, in this case, more government debt. That debt will have to be repaid. There are three ways to go about it; to grow the economy, to cut back on spending, and to change the tax system. It may be that some component of all three is necessary. What we saw in 2014 was an over-reliance on asking the most vulnerable people to carry the can for budget repair. We don't want to see that same mistake repeated in 2020.
JOURNALIST: Does Labor support the ACTU's calls for a four per cent increase to the minimum wage?
CHALMERS: We typically make our own submission, as Federal Labor, to the minimum wage cases. It's obviously extremely important in the context of stagnant wages growth for some time now that people get reward for effort in the workplace. For a lot of low paid workers, we're discovering during this crisis just how essential they are to the operation of our communities and the operation of our economy. We want to see people fairly rewarded for their work, especially the low paid who we have come to rely on so heavily throughout this crisis. It's important to recognise that wages have been stagnant in this economy for a really long time now. It's been one of the defining features of the economy under this Liberal-National Government. Wages have been stagnant not because of this crisis that's emerged in the last couple of months, but for a number of years now. We need to do what we can to get that moving again. We'll make our own views known about that. It's good that the ACTU put their own submission in. We typically put our own submission in as well and we'll make our views clear in that.
JOURNALIST: Is Labor looking at more or less than four per cent?
CHALMERS: I'm not prepared to nominate a number today. Our submission is a matter for collective consideration led by Tony Burke, our industry relations spokesperson, with the input of all the other senior colleagues. We'll do the work and we'll put our views forward as we typically have. There is a need for wages to get going again, and for the employment market to get going again. One of the reasons the economy was unfortunately quite stagnant before this crisis was because people on low incomes didn't have the spending power that they need in the economy to keep the place going. That will be one of the considerations that we need to take into account as we contemplate the recovery from this crisis too.
JOURNALIST: Do you think it is appropriate that submarine makers are receiving taxpayer-funded pay rises and bonuses during this crisis?
CHALMERS: I'm not across the details of the payments that have been made to those workers. Clearly at a time like this, industries are performing differently. That means there's capacity in some industries but not in others for those sorts of outcomes for workers, but the detail of it I'm not aware of so I'll leave commentary to others.
Okay, all good. Thanks for that.
ENDS
