Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government has racked up a trillion dollars of debt and is still leaving Territorians behind. It's a huge spending budget, but the Territory is still losing out on Commonwealth funding, and that's going to make it even more difficult for us to recover our economy. If Territorians themselves are over 35 and have found themselves out of work through COVID, they're not included in the government's wage subsidies. Let's just think about that for a second. Territorians who are over 35—those with families, with kids, with mortgages, with responsibilities—who are trying to get back into the job market, at Christmas time, are going to be left on $40 a day, old Newstart, to support their families. It's incredibly disappointing that Territorians, with some of the highest expenses, are not being given help with their childcare costs and they're not being assisted with wage subsidies if they're over 35 years of age. I feel for those Territorians. I can assure those with kids who want to get back into the workforce that federal Labor are committed to assistance with child care for those on lower wages, and that will be a great assistance to get our economy going again.