Updated April 05, 2020 20:10:48

The Federal Government has signalled it could broaden access to the JobKeeper payment, while warning the legislation to introduce the wage subsidy must pass Parliament on Wednesday.

The $130 billion measure will help pay the wages of an estimated 6 million Australians during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn.

Full-time and part-time workers, along with sole traders and casuals who have worked with a business for more than a year, are set to receive a $1,500 per fortnight salary subsidy.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said preparing the wage subsidy legislation was one of the most important "drafting exercises post-World War II" and the Government was working cooperatively with trade unions to ensure it worked.

But he ruled out the prospect of making changes to thousands of enterprise agreements, a move union boss Sally McManus has pleaded for.

"We will not be waiting or hoping that this change can be affected over the coming weeks or months by changing 121 awards and thousands of individual enterprise agreements," Mr Porter said.

Mr Porter insisted the legislation would pass the Parliament in a one-day sitting in Canberra this week.

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"We are pushing a $130 billion lifeboat out into the roughest economic seas Australia has ever had to see, and people need to decide whether or not they want to help us push the boat out. But it is going out on Wednesday," Mr Porter said.

"No matter how late we have to sit, the change will be happening next Wednesday. Six million Australian jobs depend on it."

Mr Porter said the Government was working to ensure the legislation was not open to rorting and to make sure the JobKeeper payments went to businesses and employees genuinely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He conceded the Government was not yet clear about how the wage subsidy would apply to casual workers.

"We're working on that and listening and so when you see the final draft you will see we are trying to be as inclusive and reasonable as possible."

'We've got to make sure they're not left to starve'

Australian Council of Trade Unions boss Sally McManus urged the Government to include more workers in the JobKeeper program.

"There's about 1.1 million casuals who will miss out on this payment because they haven't had 12 months' continuous service …. Those people need to be covered too," Ms McManus told ABC TV's Insiders.

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"And then, of course there's all the visa workers. And when we think about Australian workers, Australian workers are anyone working in Australia.

"We've got to make sure that they're not left to starve as well."

Ms McManus said the Government should introduce the legislation without changes to the Fair Work Act, but rather by altering relevant awards.

"The other concern we've got is a push by the Government to change the Fair Work Act. We do not believe that this is necessary. We've demonstrated that it is not necessary," she said.

"There's been changes to awards in the last couple of weeks covering millions of workers and we're worried that if you change the rights of workers, unfortunately, some employers might abuse that.

"Remember, the Fair Work Act is workers' rights. Just don't tinker with those workers' rights, we can make this happen."

Labor's industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke echoed the ACTU's concerns, saying some "extraordinary inequities" needed to be fixed.

"We want to see this legislation get through," he said.

"But there are improvements that can be done to make sure people do not fall through the cracks."

Mr Porter said laws permitting the JobKeeper payments would expire after six months.

"This has a sunset date. Any changes that facilitate the payment would have an end as well," Mr Porter said.

"If you do not change the laws, people cannot get money and pay the mortgage, that simple."

Topics: covid-19, diseases-and-disorders, health, federal-government, government-and-politics, travel-health-and-safety, travel-and-tourism, lifestyle-and-leisure, australia

First posted April 05, 2020 15:53:35