We need a Job & Income Guarantee: let’s work for each other not big business to recover from this crisis

Scott Morrison has bowed to pressure from big business and will cut JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments at the end of September.

Scott Morrison has bowed to pressure from big business and will cut JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments at the end of September.

Pushing people into poverty is no way to recover from this crisis. The government could deliver life changing reforms that improve the lives of millions of people, but they are choosing not to.

We can have a recovery that serves everybody. But we’re going to have to fight for it.

We demand a recovery in which jobs and income are guaranteed. We want good jobs with good pay and conditions. We demand a Job & Income Guarantee.

This is an unprecedented crisis that is going to require an equally unprecedented response that puts people first. We need a Job & Income Guarantee to rebuild from this crisis and prepare ourselves for the future.

We have a unique opportunity to create a future in which the government can guarantee a job to anyone who wants one, and provide a living income to everyone else.

This means a federally funded, locally implemented jobs program that creates jobs which serve our communities. Jobs with flexible hours, good pay, and benefits. Jobs that are determined by the needs of local communities and help make them thrive.

These jobs could boost public services, improve our climate and culturally enrich our communities.

But that’s not in the interest of big business, who up until now have decided what work has value based on the profit it makes for them, not for the value that it contributes to our society.

We can rebuild our economy so that it works for all of us. We can have secure and well-paid jobs, universal public services and a safe climate.

Scott Morrison’s government has a choice to make: bend to the will of big business or choose a people-first recovery that makes society better than it was before the pandemic.