TRANSCRIPT: RADIO INTERVIEW - ABC DARWIN - 5 MAY, 2021

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC DARWIN
WEDNESDAY, 5 MAY 2021

SUBJECTS: Vaccine rollout; worker shortages; rights for gig workers; arts funding.

ADAM STEER, HOST: Tony Burke, the federal opposition spokesperson for industrial relations and the arts, is in Darwin at the moment. Mr Burke, good morning. Welcome back to the Top End. Staff shortages are a problem …

TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: Can I say I’m still coping with the ads you just played. I’m still taking a breath from that.

STEER: I mean c’mon, exactly.

BURKE: But sorry that’s not what you wanted to ask me.

STEER: Well, let’s start there. Is the government going down the right path by giving us dry, informative, serious COVID ads compared to those ads we are getting played elsewhere in the globe, our neighbours?

BURKE: Look, the problem at the moment is even if we had people rushing for vaccines, there’s not enough vaccine in the country. So if we'd had a more effective ad, we might have just created more of a problem. They had the job of the vaccine rollout. We were meant to have 4 million before the end of March. We got to the end of April and we're I think we're still only about halfway there. So you know, the advertising campaign’s the least of our problems here because no advertising campaign will create vaccines. You need the government to contract and organise that.

STEER: Well we spoke to one of the super clinics here in the Northern Territory yesterday, they're quite confident that they the vaccine supply is now okay.

BURKE: We were told 4 million by the end of March. We’re nowhere near that around the country. And you know, there's a whole lot of challenges that are happening. Some of which will go to international borders and things like that, where the vaccine is part of the pathway out. And it was announced that we'd be there, we're nowhere near there. There might be one clinic that says they're doing okay, but around the country people are people just tearing their hair out about how slowly this is running.

STEER: Alright, let's move to worker shortages. Staff shortages are a problem across regional Australia. We've been hearing that in the last week but the issue is acute in the Top End during this dry season. What should the federal government be doing to assist the NT this year, right now?

BURKE: There's two problems that sort of got us to where we are now. The first is we have been too reliant on temporary migration. And it's been harder and harder for permanent migration. And we became, the government allowed us to become too reliant on temporary migration. Then when the pandemic hit, Scott Morrison told the temporary migrants to go home. So a whole lot of temporary migrants that we had in the country, that would have been available for work now, have left because the Prime Minister of Australia told them to. So you sort of couldn't get a worse combination of two impacts: the first becoming too reliant; and then secondly, that exact cohort being told to leave the country. And then the government acting like it’s surprised that places like the territory - and you know, across the north of the country, any of the high tourism areas - this problem is there. And it's entirely the government's own making.

STEER: There are still backpackers living and working in Australia. Joe caught up with some of them over the weekend.

BACKPACKER: Because a lot of us want to stay here for as long as you can, but can't because of the government guidelines and types of visas and stuff like that. So yeah, they're making it harder and harder for the likes of backpackers, essentially, to stay in the country. And especially without an influx of new people coming in, the Australian Government and the economy is kind of struggling a little. So I think we need to do something about it and maybe give us more incentives or cut down the sort of brutal time that we have to do to extend our stay here.

STEER: Yeah, so what that backpacker is alluding to, is under the current laws for many countries you need to go and work in a rural area in agriculture to extend that visa. Would the ALP support a temporary change to the worker visa regulations, allowing those backpackers to work say in tourism and hospitality in the north of Australia to extend their visa in Australia?

BURKE: If the government comes forward with a proposal, we’ll look constructively at whatever they come through with. So I’m not going to second guess what they'll put to us. But we want the issue to be dealt with. We want in the long term to make sure that we get the balance more effectively right between temporary migration and permanent migration. And finally, we need to make sure that the whole quarantine system of getting into the country is properly organised and managed, because that's a clear federal responsibility, with places like the Top End have more than carried their weight. But the Commonwealth's got a responsibility here and we’re 12 months in and they still haven't got their act together on it.

STEER: What about changes to the pension. There's a lot of grey nomads heading our way. Again, just on a temporary basis to allow those receiving the pension to work more than 20 hours a week if they want. Would the ALP support that as an idea?

BURKE: Well look, that's the first time I've had that put to me. As I say, anything that helps, we'll look at these issues constructively. So it actually won't help for me to be ruling in or out, or even for me to nominate an issue in advance to the government because Mr Morrison's the sort of person who is just as likely to then dig his heels in and say well Labor suggested it so he won't go down this path. So we’ll be constructive. And we acknowledge the challenge that's there with the workforce challenges. I just don't think we can get around the fact that this has been quite, you know, maybe not deliberately in their own minds, but it's specific acts of government have caused us to land in this circumstance.

STEER: You're here in town to discuss workers’ rights in the gig economy, for ride-sharing and delivery companies like Uber and Ola. That gig economy doesn't have, it doesn't seem to have the same reach in Darwin as it does in Melbourne or Sydney. Is there a problem here that you're hearing?

BURKE: Look, you do have some delivery riders here. The apps that function, I checked them last night on the phone. It's not as widespread, but the gig economy is still here. The challenge is this: at the moment in Australia, the moment you're not viewed technically as an employee all your rights fall off a cliff. So if you're viewed technically, as an employee you've got sick leave, you’ve got workers compensation insurance, you've got annual leave, you've got a whole set of rights, you've got superannuation. But the moment they managed to craft that “oh no, you're technically a contractor, not an employee” – then even the minimum wage doesn't apply to you. So we've got circumstances where the minimum wage is $19.84, which is an ordinary time rate so if you're getting that you're meant to be getting leave entitlements, you’re meant to be getting superannuation. We've got people in the gig economy now earning less than that and receiving none of the extra entitlements either. What's the point of having a minimum wage, if you can have this little legal game and pay a whole lot of people less? And when we've raised this with the government, Mr Morrison's response is to say ‘Oh, well, it's complicated’. The Harvester judgment was 100 years ago, or more than 100 years ago - it's been a long time that Australia has said we're not a country where you have to rely on tips to be able to make a living. We’re a country where there needs to be minimum standards and minimum wages. And the government's just turned a blind eye while the gig economy has ripped a whole lot of people off. I want the technology. I think the concept and the convenience of the apps is good. But 21st century technology shouldn't mean 19th century working conditions.

STEER: You had an informal meeting with a number of arts organisations yesterday. Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre is basically one of the only arts company in the entire of North Australia to receive Australia Council funding. What's going on here? Is Northern Australia being ignored in terms of modern day arts funding?

BURKE: The Australia Council’s been underfunded. They have been put in an impossible situation. They should be in a situation where they're choosing between the very best projects and projects that don't quite make the cut. Instead, what's happening is among the very best projects and very best companies, some of them aren't making the cut. And it's a ridiculous situation. But there was a decision that was made as soon as the change of government, so we've got an eight year old government now. So you know, back in 2014, they made a decision that for all the small to medium companies they’d effectively slash their funding. And the really big ones that are principally in Sydney and Melbourne, some in Brisbane, a little bit in Perth, but the really big ones would keep their funding. And the sector has not recovered from that. The Australia Council hasn't been given the flexibility to provide the funding again. And you know, if you're in Sydney, where I live, you've got the big companies not taking that hit but the smaller ones are. In a place like the Territory, where the small to medium sector is so important, you just get hammered by those decisions.

STEER: Well, there are only small to medium sized really. There is no big end of town.

BURKE: Yeah, and that's what I'm saying, that you're being hammered by what was a deliberate decision that they made in 2014, back when George Brandis was the arts minister, and they've never fixed it. Which is that the Australia Council doesn't get the money that it needs to properly support the small to medium sector. And that ends up being a direct attack on parts of Australia like here.

STEER: Tony Burke, good to hear from you this morning. Appreciate your time. Thank you.

ENDS