MEMBER for Mallee Anne Webster says businesses trying to bring back workers have been told by some employees they are “comfortable staying at home” while JobSeeker payments are at increased levels.
Dr Webster, while cautioning against a “hard and fast” end to coronavirus response measures, said the economy needed people back working.
The Federal Government effectively doubled the $40-a-day JobSeeker payment to $1100 per fortnight in March, through a supplement that remains slated to end in September.
JobKeeper, the government’s $1500-a-fortnight wage subsidy scheme, was set to end the same month.
Clarity about the future of both initiatives was expected from the government next month.
Asked whether JobSeeker should return to its base rate, Dr Webster acknowledged there was “quite a bit of lobbying” before the coronavirus hit about raising the payment, previously known as Newstart.
But she said the JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments in their current form were “extremely expensive mechanisms” that were only intended for a set period.
“My feeling is that we can’t just do a hard and fast ‘that’s the end of that’, there has to be some kind of measured response, because the reality is that all the jobs we want to see up and going may not actually be available, so there needs to be a tempering of how we do that,” she said.
“Conversely, is the reality that we don’t want to make JobSeeker as attractive, so to speak, as it is right now because we want to motivate people to work?
“I have story after story after story told to me that an employer has rung an employee to say ‘you can come back to work now’ and the person says to them ‘nah, I don’t really want to, I’m really comfortable staying at home’.
“As an economy, we can’t do that.”
More than 1.4 million Australians received JobSeeker in May, according to the Department of Social Services, although only 927,600 were classified as “unemployed” in the same month by Australian Bureau of Statistics.
A person must be actively looking for work to be counted as unemployed.
“Not only can taxpayers not afford to keep paying JobSeeker and JobKeeper going forward, what we need to do is have people working, because we know it is better for everyone’s mental health, for their social connectiveness, there are a mountain of reasons — including their own independence — why we need people back in work,” Dr Webster said.
Sunraysia Daily last week revealed about one in 14 Sunraysia residents were reported to have received a JobSeeker payment in May.
Figures announced nationally suggest there are at least two JobKeeper recipients for every one JobSeeker.
Dr Webster said high rates of people who work in restaurants, cafes and tourism had contributed to the impact in Mallee and said lifting restrictions “safely” would help the economy rebound.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston on Sunday moved to dismiss a report that the JobSeeker base rate was set to permanently increase by $75 per week, telling reporters no such move was before the cabinet.
Ms Ruston said the JobSeeker and JobKeeper measures were in place to get Australians through the pandemic.
“At the time we said they were targeted, they were temporary, they were measured and they still are — and we are working in that environment of transition at the moment, we are not looking at the long-term,” she said.
Opposition social services spokeswoman Linda Burney urged the government to be clear about is intentions with JobSeeker and JobKeeper, saying it was playing “cruel games”.
A review into JobKeeper was said to have been handed to the Treasurer on Friday, but the ABC has reported the government’s intention was to make any announcements in the July 23 “mini-budget”.
Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Dr Cassandra Goldie said raising JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and other support payments would ensure people have “enough to cover the basics of life”.
“We must adequately raise the rate of JobSeeker and Youth Allowance for good so that people can cover the basics they need to get by – a $10 a day increase to the old, low Newstart rate won’t be enough to allow people to cover their housing costs, food, bills and transport,” Dr Goldie said.
“As we handle the COVID-19 health crisis and confront the economic crisis, more people than ever before will struggle to find paid work.”
