E&OE
Rowan Dean
Welcome back. Well as Australia faces a widespread jobs drought, employers are currently looking for hundreds of thousands of workers to fill vacant positions. There are calls for migration to increase to fill gaps in the job market, as well as introducing measures to entice pensioners to return to work, a good idea. Let’s get on with it I say. Allow pensioners to work part time without penalising their pensions, as Cian Hussey writes in The Epoch Times, allowing pensioners and veterans to work is exactly the kind of common sense reform businesses, industry groups and ordinary Australians are expecting from the jobs and skills summit. It would be an easy and an early win for the Albanese Government. Well, I’m delighted to say that joining me now is the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Michaela Cash. Michaelia, great to see you. How are you?
Senator Cash
Great to see you. Absolutely fabulous Rowan.
Rowan Dean
Okay, so isn’t now the time to finally allow pensioners to do part time work without being penalised on their pensions? Shouldn’t this be, or couldn’t this be a number one priority?
Senator Cash
Rowan, if you were behaving like a prime minister, as opposed to an opposition leader, you would have already implemented this policy. There is a skills shortage in Australia. We have unemployment at record levels. Mr. Albanese was part of the opposition for nine long years. They get elected to government, and in fact, if you recall, they made four promises to the Australian people. The first was that if you elected an Albanese Government, tick, they’d increase your wages. Secondly, they’d tackle the skills shortage. Thirdly, they’d reduce your power bill, and they were quite specific here, by $275 per year. And fourthly, they would tackle inflation. They have been elected to govern. They have been in office now for a number of months, and yet all we see is we have a skills summit next week, where we’re bringing a whole lot of people together, 30% being unions, to put together policy parameters that they can then analyse. Honestly, Mr. Albanese needs to get over being an opposition leader- he has been elected Prime Minister- and start governing this country.
Rowan Dean
Here, here. Well, I don’t get it, and many Australians are puzzled why there are so many people on unemployment benefits, Michaelia, but there are also so many job shortages. That doesn’t add up. Explain.
Senator Cash
No, and it doesn’t. And often what you’ll see is those who are now on the unemployment benefits are often not in a position to take up the work. And the former government, as you know, we invested heavily in employment programs, we invested heavily in skills programs, to really focus on these people, because they do have those additional barriers. But what you’re also seeing is this, if businesses cannot get access to the labour that they need, they’re not going to be able to increase their productivity, they’re not going to be able to undertake that additional shift. And there are two policies that are blindingly obvious to any Australian. The first is the policy that has been put forward by Peter Dutton, which you referred to, you’ve got a ready made workforce in pensioners and veterans who are screaming out for the ability to undertake that additional day per week without affecting their pension. And Peter Dutton’s been pretty upfront with Mr. Albanese. Just implement it. Just implement it. We’ll almost give you credit for it, just implement it. And yet Mr. Albanese says he’s got to go to a job summit to talk about it.
Rowan Dean
Yes, and I wonder who will be sitting on the beanbags, do you think Michaelia, will it be Cate Blanchett and Kevin Rudd and all the usual Labor hangers on?
Senator Cash
Well the problem is Mr. Albanese wants to be like so many former Prime Ministers, but he’s got to be the Prime Minister that was elected by the Australian people today. He’s got to stop being the opposition leader and start governing. Can I tell you though Rowan, a really worrying statistic is this: out of the invitations which have been issued 30% are going to the unions, 30% to business. I’d like to know the policy rationale behind how you got to 30% unions and 30% business, because business are the employers of every other Australian in the country. Why is it that you’re not inviting every other business to this jobs summit? And I’d really be interested to know, what was this policy rationale behind these figures? Because today we haven’t been told that.
Rowan Dean
So Michaelia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, there’s a poll out there that people are expecting from this job summit higher wages, and you are right, that’s one of the things that Labor promise, higher wages, to get elected. People don’t want more immigration, yet that’s what the business councils are asking for. People want higher wages. Yes, if you recall, Albo tries to mimic, pretend he’s Bob Hawke or Paul Keating, in the last jobs summit Michaelia, which was Labor’s job summit with Hawke and Keating, they didn’t raise wages, they cut wages.
Senator Cash
That is exactly right. History may well repeat itself. Mr. Albanese likes to pretend to be a lot of things, in particular opposition leader. He is now the Prime Minister of this country. He went to the election saying specifically to the Australian people, if you elect me, Anthony Albanese, as your Prime Minister, I will ensure you get a pay rise. And yet they are now crab walking away from that. Mr. Albanese needs to also understand that despite the demands of the unions, small business are the backbone of the Australian economy and a business that has to close employs no one. And Mr. Albanese needs to stop acting like the leader of the opposition and start governing, behave like a prime minister.
Rowan Dean
And just very quickly before we go, Michaelia, it strikes me as quite bizarre that we’re embarking on this insane renewables push, closing down coal mines. None of the fossil fuel giants have been, or even the big four banks have been invited to this summit. Yet we rely here in Australia on fossil fuels and the jobs and the money that comes into this country, yet they’ve been excluded from the jobs summit. Do you think this summit is going to be a success as Albo has already nominated it to be?
Senator Cash
I think Mr. Albanese said it will set policy parameters. Australia does not need policy parameters. Australia needs policy action, and there are two policies out there, the veterans and the pensioners and the increase in immigration that Mr. Albanese could have actioned tomorrow. Start being a prime minister, start governing this country.
Rowan Dean
Michaelia Cash, great to speak to you. Keep well and we’ll chat soon.
Senator Cash
Thank you.
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