Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When Frankston's PARC closed its doors in March because of social-distancing requirements, 300 employees were left facing months without income. Now, because the government refuses to include employees of local government subsidiaries in JobKeeper, 259 locals have lost their jobs—many aren't eligible for jobseeker. All of them have lost job security. An important community asset has lost its connection with almost all of its staff.

The Treasurer can fix this with the stroke of a pen. I've written to him twice asking him to do so. The Frankston City Council have written to him—no response at all; nothing for the benefit of my community. The Peninsula campus of Monash University, at the centre of education, employment and economic activity for my community, and key to our vision for our future, has seen a reduction of almost 50 per cent in business student enrolments alone because of the pandemic. Without federal government help, universities have predicted 21,000 jobs will be lost in the next six months alone. For every dollar lost to universities, the community will lose close to $2 supporting employment in every other sector. Dunkley needs Monash University to be covered by the JobKeeper scheme. We need PARC to be covered by the JobKeeper scheme.

Five million workers are currently covered by JobKeeper, and the government had planned on six million. Now is not the time to pocket that undersubscription. Now is the time to extend employment and income security to workers and businesses in Dunkley currently excluded from JobKeeper.