Labor leader says small firms suffering from a ‘void of national leadership’ after Barnaby Joyce defends decision not to provide extra economic support
The state treasurer, Matt Kean, said he was “very disappointed” that the federal government had declined to pour in funding.
“You’ve got to get to a point where you say, well, we’re going to live with this [virus] and we’ve got to move on because the more we pay out on Omicron and Covid campaigns is less money for NDIS, less money for defence, less money for education, less money for health,” Joyce said.“One of the things you notice around any shopping centre in the country is the number of empty shopfronts and business is really doing it tough,” Albanese told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
Albanese said Labor’s pledge to provide free rapid antigen tests would be subject to “limits based upon the health advice”. It also says it would instruct Labor’s promised $15bn National Reconstruction Fund “to make medical technology a top priority and work with the A Future Made in Australia Office to develop a national investment plan for healthcare essentials”.