Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Calare for his question and for his obvious interest in the workers at Cowra. I have been informed that Cowra Abattoir is currently under voluntary administration. In the normal course, if a decision is taken by the administrator to place Cowra Abattoir into liquidation, then this government will provide swift financial assistance through the GEER scheme to support those eligible employees who remain out of pocket because of any inability on the part of the employer to provide them with their entitlements.

I remind the House that, since the inception of this scheme in the year 2000, the Australian government has helped over 59,000 employees and has advanced over $697 million in assistance to them. This is a scheme that only this government has put into operation. A couple of years ago we sought that the states contribute, on a fifty-fifty basis with the Commonwealth, to a national scheme that would provide further entitlements to workers who find themselves in this situation in Australia. Regrettably, we have not had assistance from the states in order to do that.

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