Riverina job opportunities to play 'significant role' in economic recovery, McCormack says

Mr McCormack called on people who lost their jobs during the pandemic to consider "something that they might not have otherwise thought of" and move to a regional area that was "crying out" for workers.

"Regional areas, including the Riverina, will play a significant role to ensure the nation comes out the other side [of the pandemic] as strongly as possible," he said.

"There are good jobs available right now. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics jobs data for the Riverina reflects this."

Mr McCormack made the comments in response to the Australian Council of Social Services calling for a permanent increase in unemployment payments after the JobSeeker supplements are withdrawn in December.

Labor opposition leader Anthony Albanese has called on the government to permanently increase unemployment payments, saying his party has held that policy since the last federal election.

The ABS has forecast that 4500 people found employment in the Riverina between June and July, based on a survey of residents with just a handful of hours a fortnight counting as being employed.

The latest Centrelink data showed the count of people in the Riverina who received unemployment payments went from 5700 in March to 8350 in May, which Parliamentary Library researchers described as one of the "lowest increases" in Australia.

Mr McCormack said the rise of working from home via teleconferencing brought on by the pandemic, combined with projects like Snowy Hydro 2.0, would spur on jobs growth in the Riverina.

"If there is one thing we have learned from the devastation of this pandemic is that it has been demonstrated that jobs which were previously only able to be done in the cities can be done in regional and rural areas," he said.

"And why wouldn't you want to move to the regions? Our regional centres are big enough to get a good cup of coffee, but small enough to still care."

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Committee 4 Wagga chief executive Alan Johnston said he agreed with Mr McCormack that the current economic conditions could encourage people to move.

"I think there are opportunities not just for [people to move] but for major corporations to potentially bring back their call centres from overseas and place them in regional cities such as Wagga," he said.

Mr Johnston said the pandemic's curfews and working from home also made Wagga's larger housing blocks more attractive to capital city residents.