Ballarat MP Catherine King says Jobseeker and Jobkeeper must continue
OPINION
This week new economic data confirmed what we have all known for months - that Australia is in our first recession in 30 years and we are in the middle of a jobs crisis.
The numbers are simply staggering. Household consumption fell 12.1 per cent over the June quarter, leading a 7 per cent fall in Australia's GDP. To put this in perspective, the previous biggest fall on record was 2 per cent, way back in 1974.
Australia's last recession in 1991 saw the economy contract by 1.3 per cent - this time we've blown past that, and the pain is a long way from over.
None of us have ever seen anything like this.
What these numbers represent is devastating - over a million Australians out of work and 400,000 more predicted to lose their jobs before Christmas.
In our own community thousands of jobs have been lost, with our arts and hospitality sectors hit particularly hard. Unfortunately, these are the very same sectors where many Australians have been left behind. With arts workers and casuals who have been with their employer for less than 12 months excluded from JobKeeper support, there are thousands who have needlessly lost their jobs.
For those who have received JobKeeper, that support has been essential. In May, Treasury data showed that almost 37 per cent of Ballarat businesses were accessing JobKeeper, while in tourist-focused Daylesford 46 per cent of businesses were accessing the scheme.
With our state still in lockdown, our businesses and communities are still hurting. It is essential that Government support such as JobKeeper and the increased rate of JobSeeker are not withdrawn too early.
Unfortunately, that is just what the Morrison Government is doing. JobKeeper has been extended until March next year, but the payment will start to decline from September 28. All going well, Ballarat will still only be a couple of weeks out of stage 3 lockdown at the end of September, there is no way our community and our businesses will be out of the woods by then.
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The Treasurer has the power to maintain the rate, and he must.
Similar declines are set to hit the over a million Australians who are relying on JobSeeker to support themselves and their families while those on the pension will see their payments frozen and those looking towards retirement might be forced to miss out on superannuation rises.
When you put all these policies together, you get nothing to take more pressure of Australian families and you get no plan to get us out of this jobs crisis. The Treasurer says that he's injecting $314 billion into the Australian economy, but when he was asked in the Parliament he could only count $85 billion that's gotten out the door.
This is not enough for all the Australians who are out of work. This is the time we should be investing in Australian infrastructure and Australian workers - building new public transport, upgrading roads, training apprentices and investing in Australian manufacturing.
The time to be talking about the damage that COVID has done to our economy is fast passing, it is now time for the Government to get serious about the recovery and get serious about a plan for jobs.
Catherine King is the Federal Member for Ballarat