JobKeeper and IR critical to building jobs rebound

This week’s resumption of federal parliament after a nine-week hiatus is an opportunity for the Morrison government to optimise conditions for economic rebuilding and job creation. It will introduce the JobKeeper 2.0 legislation, which will see fortnightly payments reduced from $1500 to $1200 from September 28. It will also seek to extend temporary industrial relations changes to workers who will not receive the wage subsidy beyond September. The fortnight of sitting will be crucial in steering recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. After this session, parliament next meets for the budget on October 6. In debating the JobKeeper and workplace relations legislation, all sides of politics need to be constructive in putting the economy ahead of partisan pointscoring and sectional interests.

The government’s chances of passing its legislation in the Senate without Labor and the Greens have improved, as Rosie Lewis reports, after Centre Alliance senator Stirling Griff confirmed he and Rebekha Sharkie would support it. One Nation is reportedly “sympathetic’’. The legislation is not yet available for scrutiny. But in principle, targeted, temporary stimulus measures need to be precisely that — not a harbinger of indefinite spending. JobKeeper has done a sterling job of keeping households afloat and workers on companies’ books. But, where possible, it is time to begin winding it back.

Amid a pandemic that has seen 500 million jobs lost worldwide, as Josh Frydenberg writes on Monday, a new Treasury analysis shows an impressive rebound in jobs in Australia between April and July. It has been led by NSW, where 70 per cent of workers who lost their jobs or were stood down had returned to some form of work by July. Treasury’s analysis shows a total of 689,000 of the 1.3 million jobs lost or frozen across the country during the economic hibernation were recovered between April and July. And almost half of all those jobs recovered were in NSW, contributing to a significant decline in taxpayer-funded welfare payments. But, as Simon Benson writes, the national recovery has been undermined by the unavoidable lockdown in Victoria in response to its second, deadly wave of COVID-19 and border closures. Queensland’s border closures have not served it well, leaving it with the highest effective unemployment in the nation.

While jobs recovery remains uncertain, extending workplace relations changes for another six months is good economic policy. Allowing employers the flexibility to direct an employee to work fewer hours, take leave or change duties is a useful strategy to assist struggling businesses and save jobs. Opposition IR spokesman Tony Burke’s criticism that Scott Morrison wants to “make it easier for workers to lose their pay, hours and rights” shows scant concern for current conditions facing businesses and their staff.

Aside from the obvious benefits to workers and their families, boosting jobs growth is vital to lifting income tax revenue, reducing dependence on government and lifting consumer confidence and spending. The national GST pie is set to be $300m smaller this year, mainly because of Victoria’s six-week, stage-four lockdown, reducing the scope of states for spending in transport, education and health. From behind their masks, the challenge for MPs and senators this fortnight is to focus on decisions geared to regrow the economy from one its most difficult starting points in 90 years.