MEDIA RELEASE: MCCORMACK’S OUT OF TOUCH ADVICE TO OLDER JOB SEEKERS - TUESDAY, 27 AUGUST 2019

MCCORMACK’S OUT OF TOUCH ADVICE TO OLDER JOB SEEKERS
 

PRESENTER: There are a lot of people listening right now who are 55 plus, well into their 60s, thinking, ‘I’m not going to get a job’.
 
MCCORMACK: Maybe they should look to regional Australia.
 
Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack speaking to David Bevan on ABC Adelaide – Tuesday, 27 August 2019
 
As Australians who are over 55 and looking for work know, it’s not that simple.
 
Suggesting that older Australians looking for work could easily have a job if they moved to the regions is very out of touch.
 
For most people in their 60s, it simply isn’t an option to take on heavy work.
 
Not to mention, 9 out of the 10 electorates with the highest number of people on Newstart are in regional areas.
 
Even if they are able to leave family and caring responsibilities behind, Newstart is so low people can’t afford to move and look for work.
 
One in four people on Newstart are over 55 – and age discrimination is a huge issue.
 
The Government needs to stop blaming older workers and get the economy and wages moving again.
 
It’s just a few weeks since the Minister for Social Services said the pension was ‘welfare’ and ‘generous’.
 
You have to ask yourself – why are the Liberals and Nationals so out of touch?
 
 

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
 

MCCORMACK: I appreciate that senior Australians are sometimes set in their ways as far as they’ve got the family home. They’re living in the suburbs of Adelaide. I appreciate that it’s not for everybody. But for some there are job opportunities out there if they just look.

…

PRESENTER: “I’m sorry, but this man is mad?”, says another person, the solutions that you’re providing. That’s what the phone lines are saying.

MCCORMACK: Well, I’d also like to hear what those people might have as solutions for the problem. And the bucket of money is only so big.

…

PRESENTER: What if you are 60 plus, you’ve been working as a labourer most of your life, your body is now broken, you cannot get work, and even if you could, you are in agony to do it? And what Michael McCormack says is, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t increase Newstart for you. You got to stick it out on that lower payment until you turn 67, another 7 years away, because I need to balance my budget this year’.

MCCORMACK: When you’ve got a stronger economy you can look at all those sorts of things. You can look at the welfare payments. You can look at all those sorts of things. Even spending more money on infrastructure to make it easier for people.

TUESDAY, 27 AUGUST 2019