‘Disgusting’ and ‘entitled’: MPs slam Gurner’s call for job losses

A video of Mr Gurner, shared by The Australian Financial Review on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, had received more than 10 million views as of midday Wednesday, amplified by Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s following of 13.2 million users.

Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, who represents Menzies in Melbourne’s outer east, said Mr Gurner’s wish for higher unemployment “could not be more out of touch”.

“The loss of a job is not a number. It sees people on the streets and dependent upon food banks,” Mr Wolahan told the Financial Review.

“Right now families are working multiple jobs just to stay afloat.”

A 50 per cent increase in joblessness would see the unemployment rate increase to 5.6 per cent from 3.7 per cent and the number of people out of work jump to 811,500 from 541,000.

The remarks invoked comparisons to Mr Gurner’s comments in 2017 that Millennials’ purchasing habits, including spending $19 on smashed avocado and $4 on coffee, were hindering their efforts to save for a first home.

Guacamole economics

Labor MP Sam Rae said “guacamole economics from greedy property developers won’t help productivity or get people into homes”.

“The evidence shows that efficiency, wages and conditions, coupled with job security, drives sustainable productivity and economic prosperity,” the MP for Hawke in Melbourne’s north-western fringe said.

“You’d have to be a remarkable combination of entitled and thick to advocate the infliction of further pain on working people just to line your own pockets.”

Mr Gurner declined to comment on Wednesday.

Liberal MP Garth Hamilton said he thought Mr Gurner missed the point. He said one of his primary concerns was the growth in the “working poor”, pointing to a lady living in her car outside his electorate office in Toowoomba because she can’t afford a rental property on her wage as a cleaner.

“It’s the people who are working and are worse off. That’s the big challenge that we’ve got. We’ve got people employed, who are now significantly worse off than they were a year ago.”

Labor MP Julian Hill slammed Mr Gurner as “self-interested” and “out of touch”.

“A billionaire property developer calls for higher unemployment and higher migration all at once,” the representative for Bruce in Melbourne’s south-east said.

“He’s right about productivity and the need to speed up planning and building approvals, but his views on unemployment and industrial relations can go where the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.”

Labor MP Andrew Charlton, who represents the western Sydney electorate of Parramatta, said unemployment was the “pathway to poverty, not productivity”.

“Mr Gurner has significant business in Parramatta, so he should know that unemployment in Parramatta is already 20 per cent above the national average,” the former economist said.

The unemployment rate in Parramatta was 4.3 per cent in July 2023, compared to 3.7 per cent nationally, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Greens senator Nick McKim said it was “rare that the hatred felt for working people by the capitalist classes be displayed in such stark relief”.

“Mr Gurner’s comments are disgusting, but unfortunately, his willingness to cast people into destitution for the sake of some grander economic project is not limited to CEOs,” Senator McKim said, labelling higher unemployment as part of the Reserve Bank and the Albanese government’s plan to tackle inflation.

NSW Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said productivity growth was a much better objective than increasing unemployment.

“The government for vested interests only wants to pursue economic policies which reduce productivity such as destroying labour hire and pattern bargaining,” Senator Bragg said.

“They should pursue policies to help all Australians not just unions and super funds.”

Jerome Laxale, the Labor MP for Bennelong in Sydney’s north, said Mr Gurner’s comments were what you’d associate with “a cartoon supervillain, not the CEO of a company in 2023”.