E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
TUESDAY, 2 FEBRUARY 2021

SUBJECTS: Superannuation; Industrial relations reform; JobKeeper.

STEPHEN JONES MP, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Yesterday Scott Morrison said he had no appetite for big changes between now and the election. Well today he should stand up in Parliament and say a few very simple words; “I will stick to my election promise not to make any changes to superannuation”. A simple thing for most Australians to do but seemingly a very difficult thing for this Prime Minister to do. Before the election he said no changes to superannuation and for the last 18 months, he has been fantasising with cutting workers’ superannuation. One very important fact, the average Australian will retire with less than $190,000 in superannuation. The Prime Minister will amass more than that in the two years that he's been Prime Minister. So it's fair for Scott Morrison to pull in 15.4%, why isn't it fair for the person that cleans his office to get the 12% that Scott Morrison promised before the last election? And this rabble of Liberal Party backbenchers that are running around saying the workers, the cleaners, the retail workers, the nurses the people who are keeping us safe; it's not fair for them to get 9.5% percent while they're pulling in 15.4% and earning more in one term than the average woman retires on. Come on, that's not fair dinkum. Time for Scott Morrison to stand up today and say I will keep my election promise. Because, if he doesn't do that, nobody can believe a thing that Scott Morrison says between now and the next election.

JOURNALIST: Do you share the unions concerns about the new industrial reforms that he's planning to introduce to Parliament?

JONES: What is it about Scott Morrison, you know, he'll put a hard hat and a high viz vest on and run around a workplace, but when it comes to doing the things that matter most to workers; protecting their jobs, protecting their wages and protecting their conditions, he is nowhere to be seen, he vanishes. So Scott Morrison says if you want to wage rise, you've got to trade off your penalty rates and your superannuation. Labor says that's not fair dinkum. We want workers to keep their wages and conditions have better job security and get a decent, fair, wage rise. 

JOURNALIST: Would like to see that JobKeeper is extended beyond March? [INAUDIBLE] 

JONES: There's no doubt that we need to taper and focus JobKeeper. There are some sectors that have bounced back and that's fantastic, we're very pleased about that, but we know that there are some sectors in some industries will be doing tremendously tough. International tourism, no chance of bouncing back this year big, doubts about next year. We've got to support the businesses and the workers and international tourism and of course those regions, which are overly reliant on international tourism. We've got to do something special for them as well. So we need to go regional and we need to go sectoral and we need to ensure that we don't leave any Australian behind.

ENDS