Coronavirus, Employment

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): My question is to the Premier. Is the Premier aware that government enterprises such as Adelaide Venue Management—with the Convention Centre and the Entertainment Centre—and the Adelaide Festival Centre are standing down workers?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:20): Yes. My understanding is that there have been a number of people in casual roles who have lost their jobs. This is pretty similar to what is occurring right across industry in South Australia. The sectors that have been hardest hit include the meetings industry as well as hospitality, the arts, the music sector and, of course, restaurants and pubs. A lot of these businesses are absolutely on the front line with many other sectors as well.

The federal government has put forward different packages already. They have moved very quickly, first of all with the JobSeeker package, which would be available to those workers here in South Australia, and secondly the JobKeeper package, which would not be available to those state government casual workers. That work is going through the federal parliament at the moment. I don't know, as I haven't received an update, whether there were any amendments to the draft bills that we were, if you like, briefed on in national cabinet yesterday.

But again I go back to the fact that we are in a fortunate position in Australia to be able to support people and organisations, companies, through this particularly difficult period. We are not going to be in a position to, if you like, compensate every single person in the country, but what we are going to do is try to build this bridge to the other side of this disaster, preserving as many businesses as possible. I think the JobKeeper package is particularly clever, and that has been acknowledged by the trade union movement, because what it does is keep the individual employee linked to the employer.

You might ask: why do you want to do this? Some people cynically have said that we don't want to see line-ups out the front of Centrelink offices. What it is all about is being able to start up on the other side. It is keeping that, if you like, relationship going between the employee and the employer, and it is making sure that, on the other side, we are going to be able to stand up and recover faster than other countries around the world. I think it is a very good package. Obviously, we will wait to see what happens in the federal parliament later today. It is possible that that will pass today. If it does pass today, I think it will be an extraordinary moment for our nation.