In his reply to the government’s $130 billion “JobKeeper” payments Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese outlined why the Labor Party believes it is a good bill that could be better by protecting vulnerable Australians.
The Labor leader explained the burden of the decision which could see Australia’s debt cost the nation its AAA credit rating, as the nation's budget deficit is likely to be worse than World War II.
“The scale of this expenditure that we’ll consider today is without equal in our nation’s history. We are headed for a trillion-dollar debt. It is a bill that will saddle a generation,” Mr Albanese said.
“I congratulate the government on changing its view on wage subsidies since we last met.”
“They deserve credit for listening to the views of Labor, unions and the business community on the wage subsidy issue.”
But Mr Albanese believes vulnerable workers were left behind with the government capping employers that can get the wage subsidy, highlighting that workers that miss out will slow down the economic recovery.
“There are over 1 million Australians who are casual workers who will not be eligible for the JobKeeper program,” Mr Albanese said. “This fails to recognise that in the modern workforce, many workers defined as casual but who have been stood down have expectations and financial commitments based upon that regular work and income that they do.”
