Ninety-three Australian economists and policy experts have signed an open letter, coordinated by the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute, supporting a government wage subsidy to prevent mass unemployment during the coming economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Signatories include Bernie Fraser, former Secretary to the Treasury and Governor of the Reserve Bank; Professor Roy Green, former Dean of Business at UTS; and Professor Andrew Stewart, Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide.

‘The breadth of support we received on this open letter confirms the proposal is supported by a broad cross-section of Australian stakeholders. The Government needs to move quickly now to implement this measure,’ said Dr Jim Stanford, Director of the Centre for Future Work.

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Related work: Catalogue of international initiatives to support workers through COVID-19