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To: All Members of Parliament

A #WageSubsidyForAll: No worker left behind

Right now hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and visa holders are finding themselves without an income. Some of them have lived here for years, all of them pay tax in Australia. Some of them have full time jobs and some of them work as casuals.

The Morrison Government's JobKeeper payment excludes over one million workers who fall into these categories. With no income and no safety net, this announcement leaves hundreds of thousands to starve.

Why is this important?

These workers pick the fruit and vegetables we eat everyday, they’re in the hospitality industry, they’re delivery drivers and carers, they’re the backbone of our economy.

The JobKeeper payment exists to provide a lifeline to those hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, how can the Morrison Government justify their decision to exclude over 1.1 million migrant workers, temporary visa holders and casuals?

The Morrison Government does not address the very real public health crisis that millions of workers are facing. Asking them to ‘go home’ or raid their meagre retirement savings to survive COVID-19 is not only short-sighted, it’s racist. So many of these workers have built lives here and have made Australia their home and with borders closed, these workers have nowhere else to go.

The Government must extend income support to all workers. Not doing so risks the entire community’s health and shirks Australia's moral responsibility to look after the wellbeing of all who are here during an unprecedented pandemic.

The lack of support for this group of people shows that the Government treats migrants and international students as cash cows. They hire them for cheap labour and ask them to pay huge education fees, but when things get difficult, they wash their hands clean of any responsibility.

This pandemic does not discriminate based on visa status or employment status, and neither should we. Everyone deserves to be safe.

That's why we need Minister Ruston to ensure a wage subsidy for all workers so that all of us can follow public health advice and stay safe during this crisis.

Partners

Updates

2020-04-08 07:08:46 +1000

1,000 signatures reached

2020-04-07 16:07:05 +1000

500 signatures reached

2020-04-07 14:33:12 +1000

100 signatures reached

2020-04-07 14:32:49 +1000

50 signatures reached

2020-04-07 14:32:39 +1000

25 signatures reached

2020-04-07 14:32:30 +1000

10 signatures reached