E&OE TRANSCRIPT TELEVISION INTERVIEW SKY NEWS MONDAY, 13 JULY 2020

July 13, 2020

PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: Joining me live now is Shadow Employment Minister Brendan O’Connor. Brendan good morning, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. First of all what’s your reaction today to the second $750 payment that will be available today for those who are eligible?

BRENDAN O'CONNOR, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT, & INDUSTRY, SMALL BUSINESS, & SCIENCE: Well good morning. Look, any form of stimulus that can help the economy recover is important, particularly for those people on fixed incomes, pensioners, recipients of disability support pension, carers. That’s really vital. However more needs to be done and more needs to be explained about what we do post September because at the moment there’s massive cuts to support from the end of September in terms of the end of JobKeeper and JobSeeker. And more clarity from the government in relation to those forms of support are needed to reduce anxiety, but more importantly to outline an economic plan.

STEFANOVIC: Do you think that there should be a third $750 payment?

O'CONNOR: Well that’s something we’d like to consider in the context of all other forms of support that the government is considering. As you know, the government received a Treasury report last month in relation to JobKeeper and JobSeeker and possibly other forms of support to the economy, to businesses, and to workers. It’s really important now the government outlines its plan for those people, those businesses, those workers and their families that are on forms of support so that we can assess whether that is the best response.

The opposition, I want to be very clear here, has been very constructive in supporting every piece of legislation in parliament as enacted through government initiatives. But we have also, I think, contributed to some of the forms of support, mainly JobKeeper was not going to happen originally, the government changed its mind and we welcome that.

So we want to support the government but we want the government to come clean with what it wants to do to support businesses and workers and others.

STEFANOVIC: A record seems to be broken today. The number of people who have filed tax returns already, it’s a 10 per cent jump on this stage last year, so you’ve got that 4.5 million Australians who are going to receive that $1080 tax offset. Does that comes much as a surprise to you?

O'CONNOR: No, it doesn’t. People are struggling to make ends meet. If you look at the unemployment rate of 7 per cent it’s not real because in fact if everyone was still looking for work that had lost work between March and May there would be 11.3 per cent unemployed. The unemployment figures come out again for June on Thursday and again I think we’re going to see some bleak figures. That’s why it’s really important the government needs to think about the economic prescription required post September.

Remember, the Prime Minister did say we’re going to have snap back to the economy. Well, clearly that’s unlikely. We are facing a cliff and we don’t really want the economy to fall off it. We need the government to outline its response to the Treasury review it's had in its hands now and it’s kept secret for almost a month.

STEFANOVIC: The business community you might have seen is in the paper today. It’s accused the government of not having a nationally consistent approach when it comes to these lockdowns. What’s your view on this? Does it seem to be a bit ad hoc as the states move into hard lockdowns whenever there’s a outbreak?

O'CONNOR: Well frankly I think the state premiers and chief ministers have done a very good job in very difficult circumstances and it’s easy to point the finger. But frankly you look around the world and I think it’s fair to say we are doing relatively well on the health front. I think therefore I understand some jurisdictions will apply a different approach if the circumstances warrant that.

So I’m not against there being variations to arrangements in each jurisdiction but as long as that’s been done through a coordinated approach and we don’t start pointing the finger at one over the other. We’re in this together. And if we are in this together we need to work cohesively and that also includes an economic response. We’ve got a global economy contracting, we’ve got a lot of people worrying now that after September they will have no support. Businesses will be making decisions about whether they close down if they don’t get some clarity about what forms of support they may get especially in Melbourne at the moment.

STEFANOVIC: Just finally and just quickly, do you take any issue with the Prime Minister going to the football on the weekend?

O'CONNOR: Well, I thought it was a little odd frankly. But he’s got a right to have time off and relax. Perhaps it didn’t send the best message if you’re looking from Melbourne, but it’s not a big issue for me as long as he’s focused on an economic plan for Australia’s future. As long as he comes clean about what he wants to do post September for businesses and workers that’s the main issue.

At the moment my concern with the Prime Minister is he is yet to outline a planned response post September and there’s a lot of people worried about this and they need to allay those fears and concerns by outlining their plans as soon as possible.

STEFANOVIC: Okay Brendan O'Connor, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much.

O'CONNOR: Not at all. Thanks very much