Labor says it makes sense to wind back JobKeeper for ‘overpaid’ as Frydenberg flags changes
Days are numbered for those on JobKeeper better off than when they were working, with Labor supporting a push to wind the scheme back.
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The federal opposition says it “makes sense” to wind back JobKeeper in instances where people were making more money than usual under the $70 billion scheme.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg hinted at this and other changes to the payment to be announced in Thursday’s economic update in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph.
“We did take a conscious decision to have one single flat payment of $1500, now that meant some people were getting overpaid while others were getting underpaid,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“We took that conscious decision because we wanted to get as much money out of the door as possible and we didn’t want to build a new system.”
The government now had time to “reflect” on that, he added.
Labor senator Katy Gallagher said the Opposition had argued “for some time” that the government could have tightened up the scheme in this regard.
“I think it makes sense that people who earn less and were getting more in JobKeeper, if we’re looking at how we target some of the spending, it makes sense to look at winding that back,” she said on Sunday.
Mr Frydenberg’s mini-budget on Thursday is expected to reveal the extent of the economic damage done by the global pandemic, as well as have more detail about the government’s plans for the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments moving forward.
JobKeeper is expected to be replaced by a fresh system of “tapered payments” with a focus on industries such as tourism and hospitality that were forced to shut down, the Telegraph reported.
Gallagher reiterated Labor’s call to “target, test and taper” the JobSeeker payment.
“Obviously there is going to need to be continued support,” she said.
On JobSeeker, which has increased to a fortnightly rate of $1100 in the pandemic, Ms Gallagher said a snapback to the original rate of $40 per day was “not acceptable” but declined to name a figure.
Originally published as Labor says it makes sense to wind back JobKeeper for ‘overpaid’ as Frydenberg flags changes