Read all the latest news from Brendan O'Connor MP
Read all the latest news from Brendan O'Connor MP
BRENDAN O’CONNOR, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT: Thanks very much for coming. I just wanted to respond to the ABS figures that are out today in relation to the unemployment figures and the unemployment rate of June. As we know this unemployment rate is a lagging indicator, therefore we are not talking about the unemployment rate or the unemployment numbers today, we are talking about the unemployment numbers of the first two weeks of last month. Unfortunately, we’ve seen another increase in the unemployment numbers and the unemployment rate.
The headline unemployment rate has gone from 7.1 per cent to 7.4 per cent. But what we know is the unemployment rate in real terms is much, much higher because if those people who had lost jobs between March and June had continued to look for work, the unemployment rate would be much, much higher.
I’m afraid to say it is also the case that we are so close to 1 million unemployed Australians. It is very, very distressful indeed for this nation, for those workers, for their families, for the businesses that have been struggling through this pandemic. We know it is certainly very difficult for those businesses.
What Labor has sought to do from the outset is to work with the federal government to respond economically. Respond to the needs of businesses and workers. It was Labor, for example, who suggested that we have a wage subsidy, namely JobKeeper. It was the government that originally chose to not have a wage subsidy.
Now Labor is very happy that the government changed its mind and changed its heart and introduced JobKeeper. But our fear now is that these numbers, almost 1 million unemployed, will get a lot worse if the government does not continue the forms of support that exist today to look after businesses and look after workers and their families.
I have with me today a person who works in the travel industry, a travel agent Andy Buerckner who has spoken to me today about his own business. This is a sector of the economy that of course has been devastated by the pandemic. And it’s true to say that without JobKeeper this business, Platinum Travel Corporation, would not be standing today. It would not be able to support its workforce of up to 25 people. In fact as Andy will tell you himself there would be probably 23 of the 25 people that are employed would not be working. The employees of the company would not be able to continue employment.
This underlines how critical it is for Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg to outline their plan as soon as possible about what forms of support that businesses will have after September because we are heading for a cliff. Almost 1 million unemployed Australians, no guarantees of further support beyond September. A company that is here today to tell us that all of its staff, full-time, permanent employees would not be in a position to be employed, to be connected to the labour market, without that support. And yet today I cannot inform this company that they have enough support to maintain those workers and indeed maintain the ability to recover once we get through this pandemic. And that is a dreadful shame.
So we are in a situation where we have forms of support that Labor supports. We’ve got JobKeeper up until the end of September. We’ve got thousands upon thousands of businesses reliant on that form of support. And so too their employees who without which would be completely vulnerable to what’s happening in our labour market. And we know we have now hit almost 1 million Australians, 1 million Australians lining the unemployment queues. And it will be a lot, lot worse if the support that this company gets and other companies like it is taken away, is ripped away at the end of September.
I just want to respond to a couple of other things and then I’ll handover to Andy. We've seen the announcement today on the so-called JobTrainer program. Well Labor, of course, supports investment in skills, supports investment in training, but first we need to know couple of things. We want to know the detail about this investment. We know that this is a government that has taken $3 billion out of vocational training and has reduced apprenticeships and traineeships by 140,000. We know there are fewer apprentices today than was the case at the beginning of the pandemic. We know that as well. And we know that not one dollar of this announcement goes into TAFE, the central provider of vocational training.
So we are sceptical about the government‘s announcement. We are concerned that this is an attempt to keep people notionally off the unemployment queues, but not provide decent, accredited, qualified and significant training in areas of skills that of course are in demand. We are concerned that there’s not enough detail here but of course if it provides genuine investment in our people, in skills in the labour market then of course Labor will support that. But we want to make sure it’s genuine.
Now I might just handover to Andy to tell his story that really does sum up the challenge for businesses. Let’s remember this, these unemployment figures are taken at a time when Melbourne was not put back into this form of restriction. So you see that the unemployment figure in Victoria of last month is bad enough but think of this, if you think about what’s happened in the last week or so for legitimate health reasons you understand that Melbourne and parts of Victoria are going through even greater difficulties. And that’s why it’s absolutely critical that the government provide support and most importantly an assurance that these businesses in Melbourne and across the nation will continue to be supported beyond September. Without which we are going to see workers and businesses fall off a cliff. I might handover to Andy now to talk about his story.
ANDREW BUERCKNER: Thanks Brendan. I think you made the point there that with no certainty of any international borders opening and no certainty of timelines the only certainty we do require is support. I’m very grateful for the support we have received to date, but frankly without that support I would say 98 per cent of travel agencies in Australia would be gone. And that’s talking about Australia only. In terms of our story as Brendan highlighted we have roughly 25 staff primarily here in Melbourne and we have a fantastic business and it would be devastating to see so many of our very loyal and loving team be moved aside.
Brendan highlighted there's nearly 1 million people unemployed in Australia at the moment. And I'd like to highlight that there's nearly 1 million people employed and tourism alone – 40,000 those are specifically travel agents. Travel agents are responsible for 70 per cent of international departures. Out of Australia it’s nearly $64 billion annually. I have grave fears for the mental health of people in this industry. It's largely made up of people who have been working in the industry for 30, 40, even 50 years and the chance of them being redeployed in to other industries, even with transferable skills is limited.
I'd like to just make the point that we need more of a spotlight on this industry specifically. There's a lot of talk about travel and hospitality but as much as I hate the word "pivot" there is very little chance for the travel industry to pivot into another area. Hospitality have the opportunity to look at takeaways and minimise their operations but still have incremental revenue. For us, we haven't really had any revenue since March. Not only did we not have a runway for future revenue, we've had to hand back most of our earnings from the last calendar year for departures that have been cancelled and refunded this year. So I'll leave it there but I really appreciate everyone's support for our industry specifically.
O'CONNOR: Well thanks Andrew, and I think that's the point. I mean, this story is a story that could be told by thousands and thousands of businesses across this nation. We are in a deep and harmful recession. The government has to understand the scale of the challenge. It has to understand that it needs to articulate its plan for businesses and workers across the nation as soon as possible. I mean, we have seen there's been a number of occasions in which the government has forestalled on outlining its plan. But this recession is deep, it's harmful and it can only be mitigated by substantial support by the federal government to look after those businesses and look after those workers. Without which we are going to see certainly worse social and economic impacts upon too many Australians. As I say, almost 1 million unemployed Australians as a result of this recession. The Government must explain what it will do to look after those workers and prevent more workers and more businesses being so badly affected. Thanks very much.