TRANSCRIPT: TV INTERVIEW - SKY NEWS - TUESDAY, 7 APRIL 2020

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS WITH LAURA JAYES
TUESDAY, 7 APRIL 2020

SUBJECT: Boris Johnson, wage subsidy

LAURA JAYES, HOST: Tony Burke, thank you for your time. First of all if I could just ask you about Boris Johnson's condition. He is in the ICU and this just shows how indiscriminate this virus is.

TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: That's right. I mean everyone wishes him the best for a speedy recovery as we do for the many people who are in this exact situation at the moment. It's an awful disease and you know, no one's immune. No one's immune on this. That should be I guess driven home with these sorts of examples for everyone now. But hopefully he does have a speedy recovery.

JAYES: Yes absolutely and I am sure that is shared by everyone across Australia today, and indeed in the United Kingdom. Now let's get to the politics of the day and what will be passed through Parliament in terms of this mammoth economic package. Has Labor been cut out of negotiations with the government? It seems that Christian Porter is just preferring to go straight to the ACTU.

BURKE: Look it's not unreasonable at all for a government to be negotiating with different stakeholders before they reach a position that they want to put forward. The thing that is that is disturbing is that for this government it's unusual for them to be conducting negotiations like this. We've sort of got used to a fact where they'll negotiate with business representatives and not with workers representatives before they arrive at a position. This time they're doing both and that's a good thing. The thing that is concerning is we're now the day before the legislation has to go to Parliament and the government still doesn't have a set of words that they have landed on. Now hopefully they come to that soon and once they've landed on something then we'll be able to have a look at it ourselves. But you know I think it also goes to the ridiculousness of Christian Porter yesterday coming out and demanding, pretending that Labor had a position to oppose what he was putting forward when yesterday and still today the government doesn't know what words it's putting to the Australian Parliament tomorrow.

JAYES: The ACTU and Sally McManus seems to have a better idea. There was some kind of deal struck between Porter and McManus last night when it comes to the Fair Work Commission and IR changes - do you know what that is?

BURKE: Effectively there is an attempt there to land a middle ground. So the Government's been saying they want to do everything through legislation. Both Labor and the union movement have been saying that the industrial commission gives a level of flexibility that is important at a time like this. The words that we expect to come back today find a bit of a middle ground where there's a change in the legislation but there is a role provided for the Fair Work Commission.

JAYES: And that would be okay for you. That would be palatable for Labor to have essentially the same deal in place where you can get these expedited changes but there would be a safety net with the commission to review.

BURKE: That that's where it looks like … everything's subject to seeing the final words. But I expect that we're finding a way through on this at the moment.

JAYES: Doesn't seem like there’s any deal though for casuals. Would that be a deal breaker?

BURKE: Look, the wage subsidy will go through tomorrow. Labor called for a wage subsidy, we supported a wage subsidy. The government has now said there will be one and it will happen. The challenge is who's going to be left out, and we're not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But we are arguing that people shouldn't be left behind. I mean take the analogy – that rather tortured analogy – that Christian Porter put yesterday where he said this is a Dunkirk moment. Well the problem is they're leaving more than a million casuals on the beach. And that's what we want to get fixed. You've got people who are relying on this income to support their household. And a wage subsidy simply shouldn't be leaving a million workers behind in that way, and right at the moment that is the government's position. They say you've got to draw the line somewhere but they've drawn a very strange line, where you know a casual teacher who's been working as a casual teacher for five years will miss out because they've gone from school to school. Someone in construction working as a labourer as a casual has been doing it for three years will miss out because they've gone from site to site. At a clothing store, the person who's been working five days a week to support a family will miss out and the kid who comes in for pocket money on the weekend doing a three-hour shift once a week will suddenly see their income go from $70 to $750 dollars a week. This is a strange line to have drawn and it can be fixed.

JAYES: Tony Burke we are going to have to leave it there.

ENDS