Aussies battling coronavirus need wages, not government handouts

When government policy is to close businesses down, that policy must also then extend to helping keep workers on. It’s not good enough to send them off to Centrelink, writes Peta Credlin.

I hope we’ve all worked out by now that a short-but-sharp shut down of the economy is the sad but unavoidable consequence of trying to save Australia from an Italy-style meltdown of our health system and possibly tens of thousands of deaths.

But the government can’t protect us from a health catastrophe without also protecting us from the economic catastrophe brought on by these health measures.

On top of temporarily doubling the dole and cash grants for small business, the government has now flagged rent relief and tax relief too. Fair enough, but if no one is making a profit or earning an income, there’s no tax liability anyway; and smart landlords understand kicking out a tenant now just means an empty building.

Thousands of Australians around the country were forced to line up outside Centrelink for hours this week. Picture: Peter Wallis

The real problem is wages. When government policy is to close businesses down, government policy must also support them to keep their workers on. It’s not good enough to send them off to Centrelink, especially when Centrelink can’t cope with the flood.

What the workers need to keep going through this economic shutdown that’s hit their livelihoods, in order to save their lives, is help to pay their mortgage, the power bill, put food on the table and hope back into families that are worried like never before.

Countries that rebound best out of this crisis will be those that haven’t junked their economy on the way through.

Just because Boris Johnson thought of it first, and just because Anthony Albanese has jumped on the bandwagon, is no reason for Scott Morrison not to support real wages for workers.