Aussie millionaire Tim Gurner issues apology amid backlash over remarks on unemployment

Gurner Group founder Tim Gurner has issued an apology for a controversial stance on unemployment that he recently shared during a property summit in Australia. On Tuesday, the property developer delivered an address at an event organised by the Australian Financial Review.

At the summit, he suggested that unemployment in the nation must rise to 40 per cent or 50 per cent in order to create a more productive workforce. In a statement issued on Thursday, he admitted that the remarks he made on unemployment and productivity were inappropriate and insensitive.

“At the AFR Property Summit this week I made some remarks about unemployment and productivity in Australia that I deeply regret and were wrong. There are clearly important conversations to have in this environment of high inflation, pricing pressures on housing and rentals due to a lack of supply, and other cost-of-living issues,” he said. 

“My comments were deeply insensitive to employees, tradies and families across Australia who are affected by these cost-of-living pressures and job losses," the statement read, according to The Guardian. He further expressed regret over not being able to show empathy for those who have dealt with job losses. 

What did Tim Gurner say at the summit? 

Earlier on Tuesday, Gurner attempted to share advice on how to push the Australian workforce to be more efficient. Taking a dig at people in trade, he emphasised, “We need to see pain in the economy”. "Tradies have definitely pulled back on productivity. You know, they have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years, and we need to see that change,” he added. 

The 41-year-old asserted that it is essential to remind employees that they "work for the employer, not the other way around." He then stressed that the dynamic must switch and the laid-back attitude of workers must be "killed". “There’s been a systematic change where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky to have them as opposed to the other way around. So it’s a dynamic that has to change. We’ve got to kill that attitude and that has to come through hurting the economy. We need to see unemployment rise, unemployment has to jump 40, 50%," he said.