TRANSCRIPT: PRESS CONFERENCE - SYDNEY - THURSDAY, 25 JUNE 2020

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
PRESS CONFERENCE
SYDNEY
THURSDAY, 25 JUNE 2020

SUBJECTS: Economy; Qantas; arts support package.

TONY BURKE: We've seen the report from the IMF and it's good to see that Australia is doing better than many other countries. But the warning in the report about the implications of JobKeeper falling off a cliff in September can't be ignored. This is a warning that is not only coming from the IMF, but it's been coming from industry. And we have now found it coming in the most stark way, from the aviation industry. Both the Virgin administrators and now Qantas have asked the government to make a commitment to continue JobKeeper beyond the end of September. JobKeeper is something that the government initially resisted. Labor for a long time argued in this crisis we needed a wage subsidy and the prime minister and others ridiculed the concept. Eventually they adopted it and that's a good thing. There are problems with the way they've targeted it, and the way they've administered it. But overall the impact of JobKeeper has been positive. We risk undoing so much of that if the program that has been underpinning confidence in the economy falls off a cliff in September. Business needs certainty. Now Scott Morrison now has the review into JobKeeper. He's got the document. Business is making decisions now, this financial year, as to whether or not they are going to be able to keep people on. And we've heard the terrible news today for 6000 people working at Qantas that their livelihood has now been lost. For those workers, and we feel deeply for them and for their families, the government needs to heed the advice of both Qantas and the Virgin administrators and make a decision and announce a decision to keep JobKeeper beyond September. Certainly for that industry and there'll be wider implications as well. The. Government isn't working to the same timetable as the rest of the economy. Business needs to make its decision this financial year. Scott Morrison doesn't want to announce anything till after the Eden-Monaro by election. You can't put politics ahead of the national interest. Businesses making decisions for the next financial year now. Their deadline is the 30th of June. The fact that there's a by election being held after that in July, is of no compensation for people who are now losing their jobs because of lack of business certainty. So the government should release the report, make its decision and not play a game trying to hide a decision until after people have voted in a by-election.

Certainly for the aviation industry, and I referred before to the broader implications because of course, ever since JobKeeper was established - in fact even before then, the moment the restrictions were brought in into large gatherings, 500 outdoors, 100 indoors -  I've, actually originally in this room more than 100 days ago, called for the government to come forward with a comprehensive package for the arts and entertainment sector. Today they've come forward with a package for that sector after more than 100 days of claiming that nothing needed to be done. More than 100 days of workers being ineligible for JobKeeper and the government claiming it wasn't a problem. More than 100 days of workers seeing their livelihood disappear and the government treating a $111 billion dollar industry as though it were a hobby. More than 100 days that those workers have been waiting for a package. Today, finally the government released something and we recognise that just as they gave up on their arguments against a wage subsidy they gave up on their arguments against a package for the arts and entertainment sector.

There will be some businesses that benefit significantly from what's been announced today and Labor welcomes that. But for the money that's been announced today I need to note a few things, and a few ways that this can still be improved and significantly improved. Of the total dollar amount that the government refers to, they rarely make mention of the fact that the largest share - $90 million dollars of it – goes to loans. Now in an industry that has had no support the last 100 days even though they've been shut down by government decree, there are many businesses that are in no position at all to be able to take on additional debt. There are many businesses where a debt model doesn't even work for the nature of their business. So we will work with industry to work through the detail on how that $90 million dollars will actually work. For people in the visual arts sector it is difficult to see how anything announced today applies to them at all. And for venues in the performing arts sector it is difficult to see how venues themselves will be able to get a benefit from this, and let's not forget the venues have no other purpose, they have been designed for that purpose. If we lose venues during this period then businesses that want to run shows may well have government support but they won't have anywhere to hold the shows. And so working through and we’ll work with business and industry as to how this in fact will apply to different venues is going to be critically important.

But there's no gap bigger today than workers. The government should have used today to extend JobKeeper to arts and entertainment workers. These aren't just people who stand in the spotlight, they're the people who build the stage and the people who hold the spotlight. The moment the government decided that JobKeeper would not be available to people who'd been casuals for less than 12 months they excluded many many thousands of workers in this sector. When Anthony Albanese and I spoke at the Enmore Theatre, one of the people who was with us doesn't stand in the spotlight but holds a spotlight, his name's Scott. He told us that day that he's worked in the industry for 35 years, he's been a casual for 34 years. Ineligible for JobKeeper even though his whole career has been as a lighting technician in that industry. If the arts and entertainment sectors are going to have an optimistic kick-off again as restrictions start to decrease, it's going to be critical that they have a workforce still available to them and there is no piece more obviously missing from what was announced today than the fact that while there is welcome support for businesses, there is no support for workers. And given that restrictions particularly in some parts of the country are going to be in place for some time to come, it is a long distance away before any of that money would flow in any significant way to workers who have been left behind.
 
Scott Morrison has made the point about people working together, notwithstanding the way that they have still yet to take up our offer to work together on energy policy, the offer that was made yesterday. But if we are going as a community to do with the economy what we've done with the health system, and that's work as a community and try to make sure that people aren't left behind, then we cannot continue to be leaving aviation workers behind. We cannot continue to be leaving arts and entertainment workers behind.

JOURNALIST: You’ve said you want JobKeeper to be extended beyond that September cut-off. How long would you anticipate it lasting for and would that be across all sectors, or just aviation and arts and entertainment?
 
BURKE: Certainly arts and entertainment, for most workers it's never been made available to them and that needs to be fixed. So when the government talks about, you know at a theatre company for example, they'll talk about all the companies getting JobKeeper, it's principally for their administration staff and they're important workers and it's good that that's flowing to those people. But for the people who as an audience member you'd see putting on a show, almost none of them have been able to receive it and we've been arguing the whole way through that you can't leave those workers behind. With respect to aviation it's not only aviation workers who will lose out, it's not only aviation businesses who will lose out. The entire economy will lose out if we lose competition in our aviation sector. It's critical to the way the Australian economy operates and as both Qantas management and the administrators of Virgin have made clear publicly that the September cliff for JobKeeper is a critical issue in decisions they're taking right now. So in terms, you know there'll be more that we'll be able to say when we've seen the review. But we've got this ridiculous situation now that the program has been reviewed. Scott Morrison is holding the review. Businesses are needing to make decisions now. And the Prime Minister's decided to keep it a secret until after the by-election. That is bad for the economy. It is putting politics before the economy and the report needs to be released.
 
JOURNALIST: Aside from the review, what would you like to see that date extended to?

BURKE: Look the principle here is that if you go to a hard deadline and a hard cliff and you don't provide any sort of soft landing for the economy then people will lose their jobs and businesses will fail. That's what will happen. And there is no point, if we make all the investment that we've made so far, and we and the prime minister then handles it in a way where he simply delays the really harsh reaction, rather than giving the economy a softer landing. So they’re the principles that we apply to it but I won't go more specific to that until we've in fact seen the report.
 
JOURNALIST: But that seems to indicate it will just be ongoing until there’s a vaccine, or 12 to 18 months.
 
BURKE: No, that's not what I said and it's not what I believe. I'm not going provide further detail without having seen the report. Scott Morrison has the report. So he's got the report and isn't providing any further detail on what should happen. They have specific recommendations in front of them and they're not telling the Australian people. It would be reckless for me to provide a level of specific detail without access to a report that the Prime Minister's keeping secret.

JOURNALIST: In terms of the changes you’d like to see for artists to get JobKeeper, how do you think it should be tailored or changed to accommodate them?

BURKE: I've made clear the whole way through there are a number of ways of helping the workforce here. The workforce can be helped through JobKeeper payments that go to the length of service of someone's had in the industry, rather than only limiting it to the time they've had to with their direct employer. There's a way that you could do it with respect to taking account of people with forward contracts. There is a way it could be done with respect to payments through companies. There's a way for a number of performers who have management agencies where the people who work for the management agency are on JobKeeper, but the reason the management agency exists, the artists themselves, they're ineligible. There are ways of doing it through that. My view has been the whole way through, and I've always said publicly, I don't mind which option the government chooses on that. And whichever one they take, I've said if they provide a benefit for the workforce here I will be positive about it. What we've found today is they've made their big announcement. And in terms of how much will now flow to the workforce - it's not a dollar. There's not a dollar announced today that will now flow to the people who for 100 days have been left behind. And for someone who’s working in a major production, then it won't be until all the social distancing rules are pulled back that this money starts to flow and that they're in a situation to be able to return to work. Now what will happen in the interim? Because the government says oh well they should just go on JobSeeker. The whole objective of JobSeeker is if your industry is not offering work to push you to other industries. That's what it does. It's not going to be terribly helpful if, at the end of this, the companies are given the impetus to be able to get shows back and the workforce on which they rely has all gone to other industries. That's not in their interests, it's not smart, it is what JobSeeker does. It is different to how we have treated other industries. The nature of working gig to gig, event to event, festival to festival, is you work through a variety of employers either as a casual or as a freelancer or on short-term contracts. The government has never been willing to treat those individuals as workers. Some of them are artists, some of them are performers, some of them are lighting technician, some of them hold a drill and build the stage, some of them work in security. All of them have been left behind.
 
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
 
BURKE: Well people in other industries who are eligible for JobKeeper are eligible for JobKeeper. The whole way through we've said arts and entertainment functions differently. The government has acknowledged that today finally, after saying that they weren't going to do anything sector-based, after ridiculing the suggestion repeatedly, undermining it, leaving people with nothing for 100 days, they've acknowledged today you do need to treat this industry differently. They've done it for the employers. They haven't yet done it for the workers. Thank you.

ENDS