Pandemic Wage Subsidy Ends in Australia as Brisbane Goes into New COVID Lockdown
Voice of America
SYDNEY - Australia’s multi-billion-dollar wage subsidy credited with saving hundreds of thousands of jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic has ended. A cluster of infections has forced the Queensland city of Brisbane into a snap three-day lockdown.
The U.S. $53 billion JobKeeper program was the biggest economic package in Australian history. It guaranteed workers a paycheck even when businesses were forced to close during lockdowns. In Canberra, the government has said with the recovery underway, it is time for the economy to support itself. Senior officials have said JobKeeper would be replaced by targeted stimulus programs, the first stage of which will be an expansion of the scheme to pay part of the wages of apprentices.A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's rocket launch during a news program at a bus terminal in Seoul, South Korea, May 27, 2024. FILE - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to reporters in Colombo, July 29, 2023. FILE - A TV screen shows a report of North Korea's spy satellite into orbit with its third launch attempt this year with an image of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 22, 2023.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.