JobKeeper payments need to end: Morrison must save the economy before its too late
JobKeeper and JobSeeker may be winding back, but allowing handouts to continue into March will only create more pain for hardworking Aussies in the long run, writes Sophie Elsworth.
Opinion
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Government handouts funded by the taxpayer cannot go on forever.
The haemorrhaging of borrowed money will leave the already-crippled taxpayer paying this back for years to come.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Tuesday that the $70 billion JobKeeper program would be revised to $86 billion under the extension to the program through until March 28 of next year.
The Government has already dished out payments to 960,000 businesses and 3.5 million workers.
About $30 billion has been handed out so far.
But this socialism in Australia has got to stop.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday that Australians understood the fiscal ramifications of these handouts.
Spending other people’s money like drunken sailors is unsustainable.
“They know that a current (JobKeeper) scheme that is burning cash, their cash, taxpayer’s cash to the tune to some $11 billion a month cannot go forever,” Morrison said.
“They also know the JobSeeker at the elevated levels cannot go on forever.”
Both the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments, and the coronavirus supplements, will be wound back from September, remembering this is propping up millions of Australians in a country that has had just 126 deaths during the pandemic.
The Australian economy is slowly getting back up and running – apart from the shambolic situation in Victoria which has seen the state sent back into lockdown 2.0 thanks to the inept Andrews Labor Government who have shirked any blame.
Goodness knows when businesses can get back trading in the state which had the toughest rules yet managed to cock it up badly. They have business blood on their hands because many businesses will struggle to recover thanks to being locked up again.
Shutting down the economy every time there is an outbreak is unsustainable.
These wage subsidies have served their purpose, but for some recipients it’s made them lazy. Why go to work when they can receive more by sitting on their bums watching Netflix?
It defies logic.
This week we had the Australian Council of Trade Unions suggesting the hairbrained idea of having permanent and free childcare at an estimated cost of $7 billion a year.
But who is going to pay for all of this?
Yes, the taxpayer.
And let’s be very clear about the recession we are in right now- there’s a Great Divide.
This is a private sector recession, not a public sector recession.
People in government-paid jobs need not fear about job security like the rest of the country.
Sophie Elsworth is News Corp’s personal finance writer