The Federal Member for Rankin Jim Chalmers has said removing the JobKeeper program, which ended at the weekend, will damage Logan City’s economy and even delay our recovery.
“Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg will cut JobKeeper for an estimated 10,324 Logan workers and 3,355 Logan businesses, ripping around $10 million a fortnight – $5 million a week from our local Logan economy. Cutting JobKeeper is cutting Logan jobs. It’s that simple”.
“The Morrison Government is rolling out vaccines too slowly, and pulling JobKeeper support from the Queensland economy too quickly. Getting either the vaccine rollout or the economic response wrong is damaging, but getting both wrong simultaneously, could damage and delay our recovery.
The small business owners that I have previously regularly spoken with are becoming increasingly anxious and tell me that both of these things will have big consequences for jobs in our community. What these hardworking families and workers want from the federal government is certainty and I’m increasingly worried the LNP just isn’t listening, and just doesn’t get it”. He added.
Mr Chalmers has also said “Nobody is saying that JobKeeper should have gone on forever, but it should have been tailored and targeted to what’s actually going on in our local community. The Morrison Government’s JobKeeper cuts risk leaving too many people in Logan behind.
He goes one to say, our recovery from the deepest recession in a century risks being longer because Scott Morrison is pulling support from some sections of our local economy too quickly.
“Our community needs and deserves a comprehensive jobs plan to support local workers and businesses in the recovery. Abolishing JobKeeper will impact more than one million workers and half a million businesses across the country. Labor pushed for wage subsidies in the first place because it was the right thing to do. With more than two million Australians searching for a job or more hours, the Morrison Government has no real plan to grow our local economy”.
Dr Chalmers adds that cuts to JobKeeper, cuts to wages, and cuts to superannuation will make things worse, not better.
