Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2017-2018 is an appropriation bill, and, while Labor has said that it will not block supply, this debate gives us a chance to talk more broadly about the government's agenda and the impact that the government's agenda is having in regional communities, particularly my own community of Bendigo.

A couple of surprises were in the MYEFO this year that hit regional communities tough. One that I particularly wish to highlight is the way in which funding has been ripped away from universities—the freezing of university places. At the Bendigo campus of La Trobe University, in my electorate, they were very concerned about the impact that this cut in support for students would have on all of their regional campuses. In Bendigo, in Shepparton, in Wodonga they feared that with a freezing of university places people would chose to go to the city first, and once the city was full there'd be no places left for the regions. It is typical of this government: they randomly put out these policies, these blunt instruments, without really consulting with the sector, without really asking what impact this would have. The Bendigo campus was hoping that because they have some flagship courses, like dentistry, and because their rural school of health is world-class then that would help attract people to Bendigo as their first choice.

We also know that freezing university places would make it harder for regional students, people who are re-entering the work force and seeking to upgrade their skills, and mature-aged students—who are a large proportion of our regional campuses—to go to university. The fact is that if you live outside of metro Melbourne you can knock points off your ATAR score; you can knock points off your university entry level score. In Queensland, if you go to school in some regional areas, like on the Sunshine Coast or in Gympie, they say that you knock two points off your OP. If you go to an average school—a state school, not an elite school—you can knock points off of your OP because of the way in which the system has been designed. Kids that are equally as bright, but disadvantaged because of their school marking, could miss out on university places because of this government's freeze—a random arbitrary freeze with no proper consultation with the sector about how it would happen.

The MYEFO also confirmed this government's addiction to their $65 billion in handouts and tax cuts to multinationals. This is at a time when they keep talking about budget repair. Rather than getting the companies that are making the profits—that are making the most money—to actually contribute towards our common wealth, they're making working people on low to middle incomes pay more in the way of tax. The rhetoric of this government—they twist themselves up. Regarding the $65 billion in tax cuts, they actually believe, or they're trying to mislead the Australian people by saying, that, if you give the companies more profits, they'll give it to workers. That is nonsense. It has never happened. The only times that workers actually get a pay rise is when they bargain for it or when it's awarded to them by the Fair Work Commission. It is so rare for a company to say, 'Here is a wage increase just because we like you.'

Talk to the mining workers in Queensland. We found out last week that many of these multinationals who will get a handout under the government's plan have had a massive increase in revenue in the last 12 months. The returns are in and their net export value is up. In coal, it's up 35 per cent. Across all of the mining sectors, including gold from my electorate, it is up 52 per cent. These companies are making mega profits, yet we haven't seen the wages for their workers go up at all. In fact, we've seen the reverse. More and more workers are being told: 'You've lost your job. You have to re-apply for labour hire. It's less money.' I've met coalminers in Central Queensland who've lost 80 per cent of their entitlements—the extra bonuses that they get. They've gone back to the basic-wage structure. I've met people who have been told: 'You no longer work directly for BHP'—or Glencore or Anglo American—'You now work for a labour hire company. It is full-time equivalent, with similar responsibilities, similar expectations of you and the same uniform, but you're getting paid $30,000 to $50,000 a year less.' This is what's happening in Australian workplaces, yet the government wants us to believe that if we give companies money they'll give it to workers. Bring in the instrument. Bring in the legislation to make companies do it, because they won't. We know that they won't, because they never have without us having robust enterprise bargaining rules.

What is also contained in the MYEFO is the government's plan to increase tax on low- and middle-income earners. This comes back to priorities. Rather than asking the companies that are making all of the profits to help contribute towards our common wealth, they're increasing the Medicare levy, which is basically increasing the taxes for low- and middle-income earners, the same group of people that has not had a decent pay rise. Australians need a pay rise. These are the same people that may have had their penalty rates cut. Again, this government—I nearly said 'company', because it acts a bit like a company—did nothing to stop the Fair Work Commission cutting penalty rates. It is this place that sets the rules for the Fair Work Commission. When they make a decision that is not in the best interests of working people, when they make a decision that sees 700,000 Australian workers cop a pay cut, this place should reset the rules to make sure that those workers do keep their penalty rates. These are some of the lowest-paid workers that we have in our community, yet this government did nothing. They stood back, let their penalty rates be cut and then doubled down and said, 'For those of you working full time and earning more than $20,000 a year, we're actually going to hit you with an increased tax by increasing the Medicare levy.'

We also saw in the MYEFO an attack on our pensioners. I guess we shouldn't be surprised, because we had the minister responsible for this area stand up in question time and say, 'The solution to the deeming rates for pensioners, because they're so low, is for them to go out and get a job.' They're now saying to people over the age of 70, over the age of 65, 'The reason why we're not going to look at your pension is we think you should go out there and get a job, and that's the role of government.' They've worked hard enough. It's time that they get a chance to enjoy their retirement. It's already hard for people to keep working to the age of 70, particularly in industries which are labour intensive, whether it be carpentry or nursing. Any job that involves physical movement is very hard to do to the age of 70. It's not like being a politician or working at a desk.

Not to mention it's an equity issue. They've worked hard. They deserve respect in retirement. But what we've seen from this government is not only are they not doing anything about deeming rates but they've also continued their pursuit to ditch the energy supplement. At a time when gas and energy prices are spiralling high and continue to go high, this government wants to ditch the energy supplement, which will leave pensioners $366 a year worse off. They also still want to increase the pension age to 70. It demonstrates again how out of touch they are with older Australians. Despite all of the guarantees of the government, all they've guaranteed are high energy prices. That's all this government has guaranteed.

I met with some pensioners in my electorate during winter. They brought their winter bills in to talk about how they'd gone up. Let's remember the rhetoric of this government when they were in opposition. All their ranting about debt and deficit, all their ranting about the carbon tax, all their promises of '$550 back in your back pocket', all their promises to get debt under control—they've failed on two of their key election campaigns. The pensioners that I met with didn't have an extra $550 in their back pocket because of this government. No. Many of them were saying, 'We're actually paying more than we ever have for our energy bills, and they continue to go up.' I've mentioned the push of the pension age to 70. This again demonstrates that they have very little understanding of what kind of jobs people can do until they're 70. If people want to work until they're 70, we should encourage them, but we shouldn't make it mandatory. It's hard to be a plumber, a carpenter, a nurse or a cleaner until you're 70. We should show older Australians respect and support them.

This government is also failing spectacularly at helping connect jobseekers with the jobs that are available. I was in Tasmania last week talking to some of our berry, apple and fruit industry. Some of their jobs are seasonal. They are concerned about what's going to happen in the peak picking season for them. They need about 2,000 workers in this part of Tasmania. In the north-west, they need about 6,000 workers for harvest, which is eight weeks. But what I did learn by being there is that a lot of their work—their pruning work, their packing work—is ongoing. It is almost full time—11 months, 12 months of continuous work. Yet the job agencies in those areas—jobactive, whatever name you want to give it—had failed to match people looking for work with the jobs that are available.

Another example in my own electorate is a meatworks in Kyneton that is keen to employ locals looking for a job. All the job agencies, the job networks, had failed to connect the jobseekers. The people that they kept bringing out were vegans, vegetarians and the long-term unemployed. It took Bendigo Community Health Services resettlement officers and myself meeting with the company, doing the walkthrough and basically being the matchmaking service to get recently arrived migrants of Karen and Afghani descent working there—and now they are working!

It's a great news story, but it should be something that happens automatically because of the priorities of a government that invests properly in supporting people to work. The job agency, jobactive—whatever fancy name this government gives—aren't working.

The other area where this government is failing is on jobs. They say all these new jobs have been created under their watch, but what jobs? How many insecure jobs are there? How many casual jobs are there? How many jobs are full-time but working for labour hire so people can be sacked at any minute? We have a real crisis going on in our economy when it comes to jobs. Young people can't get entry-level jobs. Companies are now looking overseas, because they can get experienced overseas workers to come here, before investing and training in our own workers.

Just yesterday we had this government push through a bill in this House that stripped labour market testing out of our 457 visa system. Why would you do that? Why would you give companies the opportunity to bring in whoever they want and not do labour market testing? They've taken it out of the legislation and said, 'Don't worry, we'll do it. We're going to create an instrument. Don't worry, trust us.' Not that that instrument is disallowable; we just have to trust them. Australians do not trust this government, and they do not trust them to stand up for jobs, health and education, and to make sure that multinationals pay their fair share of tax and are accountable.

This government is failing on education. We've just gone back to school in central Victoria, and a number of schools wanted to run programs this year that won't run because of this government's funding cuts to schools. I'm talking about senior secondary, which is $1.2 million worse off because this government did not honour the original Gonski funding model. A school like Weeroona College—$800,000 a year worse off. Just imagine the programs they could have had. Just imagine the support and the opportunities they could have given to those students. Meanwhile, Girton Grammar, just up the road, is a very good school. The parents do pay a lot in fees. That school actually got an increase in funding, close to a million dollars extra from this government. Yet the school that has the disadvantaged students, the kids most at risk and the most diverse student population gets a funding cut.

It always comes back to priorities in budgets and budgeting, and all I can say is that this government's priorities are wrong. They're not prioritising our schools. They're not prioritising our hospitals. They're not prioritising Victorian roads and rail. They are not prioritising young jobseekers. They are not prioritising TAFE and university. Instead, what they are prioritising is big tax cuts for multinationals and making sure millionaires pay as little tax as possible.

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