PM calls phase 2 of wage subsidy

SCOTT Morrison says a new targeted and temporary phase of JobKeeper will be introduced after September.

The Prime Minister said changes to the wage-subsidy program, to be unveiled on Thursday, would not come into effect immediately.

“It will be phased and we will be announcing the next phase post-September,” Mr Morrison said on Monday.

“It will be targeted, it will be temporary, it will be effective, as the first round has been – almost one million businesses, around 3½ million employees, and there is still two months to go on the current set of arrangements.

“There will be several months for businesses to adjust to the next phase. But the support that had been in place since April will be in place until September, and then we’ll move into a new phase.”

Mr Morrison said it was “hard to say” how many phases there would be because there were so many uncertainties with COVID-19.

“I don’t want Australia to (just) survive the COVID recession, I want us to emerge strongly from it,” he said.

He also said cancelling the parliamentary sitting in August was a “no-brainer”.

“We know how important it is for the parliament to meet and sit (and) exercise our responsibilities carefully,” he said. “And there is a sense across the major parties that we sit in person. We will be seeking to do that when the parliament next, on August 24, sits. That is my expectation.”

Leader of the government in the Senate, Mathias Cormann, on Saturday said it was not feasible to have politicians from across the country descend on Canberra.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese agreed: “That decision by the Prime Minister is one that we accept.”

However, it wasn’t accepted by all MPs, with some in his ranks joining crossbenchers in taking to social media to express disappointment.

I DON’T WANT AUSTRALIA TO SURVIVE THE COVID RECESSION, I WANT US TO EMERGE STRONGLY FROM IT SCOTT MORRISON

“It’s 2020. Surely the Prime Minister could support alternative ways of holding parliamentary sessions so we can scrutinise what the government is doing,” Victorian Dunkley MP Peta Murphy wrote.

Manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, told ABC on Monday that they needed to work out new protocols that would allow politicians to meet in person at parliament.