Labor backbencher Ed Husic says the government needs to speed up the deployment of its so-called “weapons” to fight the economic fallout of COVID-19.
Thousands of people waited in hours-long lines outside Centrelink branches across the country on Monday, after a nation-wide shutdown of non-essential businesses saw hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs overnight.
Mr Husic said if the government could not bring forward service delivery, it needed to “take the people in (their) trust” and tell them why not.
“I noticed old mate Josh Frydenberg saying this is an enemy that doesn’t have a face and we needed to be deploying all the weapons,” he told Sky News.
“I would be urging the government to deploy those weapons a lot quicker.
“This stuff should be brought forward, if there is a reason why it’s not happening, then just be upfront and let people know and explain why.
“Take the people in your trust I reckon.”
