Interview – ABC Afternoon Briefing with Jade Macmillan
Topics: Labour force figures, COVID vaccination rollout, NDIS independent assessments, Christine Holgate.
E&OE
JADE MACMILLAN:
Australia's unemployment rate has fallen again, dropping from 5.8 to 5.6 per cent in March. Those numbers don't reflect the withdrawal of the JobKeeper wage subsidy, which came to an end on 28 March. To discuss the jobs numbers, I was joined by the Employment Minister, Stuart Robert, earlier.
[Excerpt]
Stuart Robert, thanks your time.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Great pleasure.
JADE MACMILLAN:
The unemployment rate has fallen again in March. What do you put those numbers down to?
MINISTER ROBERT:
The number of 5.6 per cent is pleasing. I think there’s a lot more work to do. Pre-COVID, of course, it was at 5.2, but I think it demonstrates clearly that the comeback is occurring, that the settings we have put in place for the economy are now starting to bear some fruit. There’s some way to go. There’s still some Australians hurting but I think these numbers are pleasing.
JADE MACMILLAN:
The JobKeeper wage subsidy came to an end towards the end of March so today’s figures don't really reflect the impact of that being withdrawn. What are you expecting the April figures to look like?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Treasury estimates that somewhere between 100,000 to 150,000 Australians may lose their job at the end of JobKeeper so we'll wait and see what the April numbers show. The good thing about today's numbers, though, participation rate is the highest it’s been. Participation rate for women is the highest it’s been. A 1.1 per cent drop in youth unemployment driven mostly by the employment of young ladies. All of these are exceptionally good signs. They’re encouraging. It shows that bringing JobKeeper off now was the right decision, that we are coming back from COVID. But a lot more work to do in the workforce, a lot more work to do in skilling. I’m looking forward to seeing JobTrainer now really kick in to provide those opportunities for Australians.
JADE MACMILLAN:
Given we don't yet know exactly how much of an impact there will be because of the withdrawal of JobKeeper, when do you expect that we will return to pre-COVID unemployment levels?
MINISTER ROBERT:
It’s interesting hearing Bill Evans come out today, hearing Matt Comyn from the Commonwealth Bank come out, interesting to hear Deloitte Economics speaking of a growth rate of above 4.5 per cent. I think 4.6 was the number they were quoting. All of them talk about coming out faster post-COVID. Now we won't get ahead of ourselves from a government point of view. We'll continue working hard on workforce planning, on skilling Australians through the JobTrainer Fund, and of course, the Treasurer will have a lot more to say in the Budget. So, the results are pleasing, but we know there’s still a lot more to do.
JADE MACMILLAN:
While we're talking about new jobs, one of the centrepieces last year's Budget was the JobMaker Hiring Credit and youth wage subsidy. That has fallen far short of expectations so far. What has gone wrong with that program?
MINISTER ROBERT:
The issue isn’t the programs have gone wrong or have gone right. There’s a number of payments out there or programs out there. There’s something like seven wage subsidies. JobTrainer has now kicked in, which came in at the end of last year, reaching full potential in January this year. So, there’s a range of measures that we’ve put in place to really assist Australians in the pandemic. The responses are changing. The way we thought the pandemic would roll out has changed. We aren’t out of the woods yet. There’s still a lot of variable factors in play, so a range of options are still needed.
JADE MACMILLAN:
The Government has flagged, though, that the JobMaker Hiring Credit will be changed in next month’s Budget. What kind of changes do you think we need to see to make that program more effective?
MINISTER ROBERT:
We’ll let the Treasurer speak to the Budget. There’s only, well, goodness, less than a month to go and I'm sure we can all wait to see what the Treasurer has got to say. One of the key changes coming through though is JobTrainer. We announced 300,000 places, 90,000 of them are already taken up. It’s a billion-dollar initiative on how we train skills for the future. And we are recording this in Devonport where there’s a jobs fair in place, the 34th jobs fair the Government has run; 700 jobs available here and we’re seeing the impact that skilling has got. So I’m looking forward to what we can in the future in terms of skills and targeting those skills and getting agile, ensuring we can train in the right areas. I think that’s one of the next key areas that’ll really move the dial for us.
JADE MACMILLAN:
I want to ask you about the COVID-19 vaccination program. Up until very recently, you were the minister responsible for the NDIS. Has the pace of the rollout in disability care facilities been acceptable in your opinion?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well the vaccine program is a challenging program, one of the greatest logistical efforts the country has ever attempted and embarked upon. We’re well over 1 million Australians have now been vaccinated, and it’s continuing to roll on. Plan 1A and 1B was about aged care residents, about those in disability settings, and that’s continuing to rollout. The changes in AstraZeneca will have an impact, there is no question about that, because many Australians with disability in complex cases are under the age of 50. But it’s complex. State and territories are working well together. We’ve got a long way to go until the end of the year and onwards as we move through our vaccination program. There's a degree to which we need to be patient and all work together on it. But I'm very comfortable in terms of how program is rolling out, and how we’re keeping Australians informed, and how we are working with the states and territories on it.
JADE MACMILLAN:
We heard from a large disability services provider recently who said they hadn’t yet received any doses for their residents or their staff. Is that good enough?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well, keeping in mind that when it comes to supporting independent living, group homes is an older term, you’ve got 5000 of those settings in Victoria alone, let alone across the rest of the country. So they are enormous settings. The average aged care facility has many, many tens of people in it. The average supported independent living or group home has an average of three. So it’s a very different vaccination setup, it’s a very different set of circumstances. So looking at one individual case won’t give you an idea of the over 10,000 different settings that will need to be vaccinated.
JADE MACMILLAN:
The new Minister for the NDIS is holding off on plans that you have been developing to introduce independent assessments. Do you stand by that policy?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Independent assessments were put in place because that is what the Productivity Commission recommended. The father of the scheme, John Walsh, strongly recommended, the Tune Review that looked into this a number of years ago continued to affirm the need for it. We’re now in the second trial of independent assessments, and my understanding of Minister Reynolds is she’ll be looking at the trial results, and she’s quite right to look at those results. I was intending to do that as well. However, the Government remains committed to the Productivity Commission's recommendations. That was the basis of the scheme and the basis of how we’re finalising the design of it.
JADE MACMILLAN:
There has been quite a lot of criticism of the plan. Some organisations describing it as a tick a box system. Was it a mistake to pursue this policy in the first place?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well again, independent assessments were recommended by the Productivity Commission. That was the report that the entire sector welcomed as the basis upon which we would build the NDIS, reaffirmed by the father of the scheme, John Walsh, and reaffirmed by the Tune Review. And of course now, in it’s second trial phase. So let’s wait and see what the trial brings up and where it lands, but we're talking about world-class independent assessments, by trained OTs, physiotherapists and health professionals. That’s the basis upon which we’re looking at it. It’s the basis, of course, on which we do ACAT assessments for aged Australians for the disability support pension where we do medical assessments. So this is not new to have assessments that are independent of participants.
JADE MACMILLAN:
Would you like to see Linda Reynolds sticking to that plan once this trial has been assessed?
MINISTER ROBERT:
I’ll leave that to Linda Reynolds. She’s an outstanding minister, she’ll make her own decisions in this respect. And she’ll look back at the decisions that have been made that have built the scheme, including the basis of the scheme in terms of the Productivity Commission. But I think we can all have enormous faith in what Minister Reynolds will do.
JADE MACMILLAN:
I want to finish on another major story this week: the evidence given by former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate. She has accused the Prime Minister of bullying her. Should Scott Morrison apologise?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Look, the Prime Minister has made his point on that very clear and has enunciated his point of view on that. Now, I’m cognisant that it’s one job, and I am concerned about 13,000,077 jobs, which is the amount we’ve got right now. But I think the PM’s comments have been quite clear.
JADE MACMILLAN:
Christine Holgate left Australia Post over a scandal involving the purchase of watches worth a total of $20,000. You have previously paid back $38,000 for unusually high internet bills. You’re also one of several MPs who returned Rolex watches from a Chinese businessman in 2013. Has Christine Holgate been held to a different standard here?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well, my understanding is that Ms Holgate actually resigned as the CEO. That’s what I'm led to believe. I am not close to it I just recounting media reports.
JADE MACMILLAN:
But do you think there is a perception here that she has been treated differently to the way that politicians in the past have been treated?
MINISTER ROBERT:
I’m not going to comment in terms of perceptions, I can only comment on what has occurred. And my understanding is that Ms Holgate resigned.
JADE MACMILLAN:
Alright, Stuart Robert, thank you so much for your time.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Thanks, Jade.