Interview – Sky News Live First Edition with Danica De Giorgio
Topics: Labour force figures, COVID vaccine rollout.
E&OE
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
Well, Australia’s recovery from the COVID recession has been hailed as miraculous, the jobs market is growing twice as fast as first anticipated. Seventy thousand jobs were created last month, but the effects of JobKeeper being withdrawn are not yet known. Joining me now live is Stuart Robert, Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business. Minister, good morning. The unemployment rate dropped by 0.2 per cent last month, but, is this a false representative of the state of the economy? Given that these figures take in the JobSeeker subsidy?
MINISTER ROBERT:
I think there’s a lot of reason for cautious optimism. The economic plan we put in place is clearly working – unemployment at 5.6, when we forecast through Treasury at the end of last year would be 7.5 or thereabouts. So, I think the jobs market is coming back well – 90,000 part-time jobs created, 20,000 full-time lost, with a net gain of 70,000. But, there’s still, well, more work to be done and we understand that, but, now’s the right time to be withdrawing a range of temporary subsidies, which we’ve done, and we’re looking forward to what more we can do now.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
The Government has tied our economic recovery on the COVID vaccine rollout. Given our rollout is delayed, how can business be confident in our economic recovery?
MINISTER ROBERT:
The vaccine rollout will continue to have a range of left-field events as we’re seeing right across the world, and the AstraZeneca issues are just one case in point. However, the numbers yesterday – the rate of employment coming forward, the number of full-time, or the number of jobs now in the economy is higher now in total gross numbers than it was before the pandemic. I think we’re one of only a few countries, if the only country, in the developed world that has that claim.
So, it shows that our economy is coming back as long as we continue to be sensible and sound on how we manage state borders; on how we do tracking and tracing; and as we continue to work together with states and territories. So, I’m highly confident that, as we continue to co-operate well across governments, that we’ll continue to see the economic recovery, that we’re planning for and we’re building in to continue.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
But, aren’t these borders underpinned by our vaccine rollout?
MINISTER ROBERT:
There’s no question the vaccine rollout is incredibly important, but, even when the vaccine is complete and the vast majority of Australians have been vaccinated, we’ll still have continued issues with COVID as something we’ll have to monitor and manage from this time forward.
So, it’s important we get into a rhythm of how we’re going to operate – vaccinations is a part of that rhythm; tracking and tracing is part of that rhythm; working with states and territories to keep borders open is part of that rhythm. And together, all of that gives a great deal of economic comfort and the opportunity to plan.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
You mentioned yesterday’s numbers, we saw record employment growth. Minister, is it too soon to be celebrating? Or do we need to wait until the full impact of that subsidy being removed has been seen?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Well, there’s no celebration – there’s a cautious optimism. It’s a checkpoint in time to say our economic plan is working but there is a lot more to do. Skills are becoming necessary; workforce planning is becoming very important. There, there are areas of the economy where employers are saying they’re struggling to find Australians to work, so we need to put our shoulder to that wheel.
However, the signs are positive. There are a lot of Australians, though, doing it tough; there are a lot of industries that continue to struggle. So, we need to be cognisant of those and we need to be working together still. It’s a long way to go as we exit from COVID and move into our post-recovery phase.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
Minister Stuart Robert, we have to leave it there. Thank you for joining me this morning.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Thanks very much.