Coronavirus: Job relief assured after ALP commits

JobKeeper payments will flow until March after Labor com­mitted to passing the second phase of the wage subsidy scheme.

Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese in question time at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday. Picture: Sean Davey

JobKeeper payments will flow until March after Labor com­mitted to passing the second phase of the wage subsidy scheme, despite having concerns about the impact of emergency industrial relations powers on some workers.

While the opposition is considering amendments that may make it harder for employers to direct employees to work fewer hours if they no longer receive JobKeeper payments, their support for the legislation will not be contingent on those changes.

“We are still working through the details of the impacts the legislation will have on workers at so-called ‘legacy businesses’ (workers who qualified for JobKeeper 1.0 but not JobKeeper 2.0),” opposition industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke said.

“We may move amendments to further improve the legislation when it reaches the ­Senate.”

Josh Frydenberg said it was important the legislation to extend JobKeeper and associated workplace flexibilities, which allow some employers to direct employees to work less, take leave or change duties, were passed in full.

The JobKeeper fortnightly rate will reduce from $1500 to $1200 on September 28, or $750 for employees who work fewer than 20 hours a week.

The legislative win for the government, which is guaranteed in this sitting fortnight before parliament rises for a six-week break, comes as Education Minister Dan Tehan offered a fig leaf to the Nationals and agreed to spare some university students from degree price hikes.

The overhaul of student fees has not appeased the most prestigious higher education institutions but passed the Coalition partyroom on Tuesday.

The bill is likely to be introduced to the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Senate crossbench sources said the upper house would likely refer it to a committee, which could last anything from a week to several months.

Social work and mental health students will no longer be clustered with humanities courses, which face a 113 per cent increase in student fees, and will pay $7950 a year instead of $14,500.

Mr Tehan has also accepted calls from the higher education sector to provide a legislative guaranteed “floor” for government grants to courses.

But the Group of Eight — which represents the likes of the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne — said the changes from the Coalition’s joint partyroom did not go far enough and the bill would still leave them with a 5 per cent cut to their teaching budget.

The government will this week introduce legislation to remove duplicate state and federal approvals as part of a “single touch” system under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Labor has also given notice that it will move to disallow the Morrison government’s feasibility study on a high-efficiency low-emissions coal plant in ­Collinsville.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan seized on the move as being the opposition “once again deserting its working-class roots to side with Green activists who ­oppose coal”.