Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak and make a contribution to the debate on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2018-19. In doing so, I want to voice the concern my constituents have about the government's budget and budgets of the past. This budget, in the view of my community, fails the fairness test and it fails the fiscal responsibility test. It effectively fails middle Australia. It also fails the most vulnerable in my community.

I'll go to one issue that I spoke about in quite a bit of detail last year, and that is that the government is still pursuing measures that will force people to work until 70 years of age. In my electorate, I have people who are engaged in a number of blue-collar jobs—tradies and hospitality staff. I also have nurses and teachers. I have aged-care workers. If you know anything about care aged-care work, you know that the work that they do is very important and very difficult work. These are jobs that are physically and also emotionally very demanding.

I spoke against these measures last year, and I'll speak against them this year as well. The budget is also maintaining and pursuing measures to axe the energy supplement of $14 a fortnight for single pensioners. I have 16,128 pensioners in my electorate, and that's more than 15,000 elderly and vulnerable Australians that will be impacted adversely as a result of these measures, especially as we approach the coming winter. It's always an issue, in particular, during the winter. This budget still has a freeze on Medicare for specialist visits. In my electorate, those sorts of freezes adversely affect the health and wellbeing of my community.

My communities have already suffered at the hands of many previous budget measures. They are trying to balance the rising cost of living. Many of them, a large number of them, are employed in insecure work, and a large number of them are unable to afford housing. So they do wonder why the Prime Minister has chosen to prioritise big business and the banks by giving those institutions a $80 billion tax handout, when their own middle Australia—my constituents—need all the assistance that they can get. A Shorten Labor government won't do this. We won't, because we understand what the Australian community needs, and what it needs in order to help advance itself. Labor's approach to the budget offers a fairer and more responsible alternative, fairer to middle Australia and to our most vulnerable, and more responsible when it comes to budget repair.

We have a plan, a real plan, to see working Australia genuinely get ahead. Our plan will see those who earn up to $125,000 a year paying less tax than they would under the government's proposed tax cuts. That's going to make a huge difference to my constituents who will be among the four million Australians who will get a tax cut of $928 a year—money that they desperately need and money that reflects the Labor Party's priorities. We are prioritising the welfare of middle Australians.

The governments' narrative around the $70 billion tax cut goes along the lines that company tax cuts will by definition enable investment, create more jobs, produce more productivity and lead to wage increases. Well, the people in my electorate don't subscribe to trickle-down economics. They don't subscribe to it because we have a history of big companies abandoning our area—big companies such as Pacific Brands, Yakka and Dunlop. These big employers who took their business offshore in pursuit of greater profit, complaining the Australian labour market was too expensive for them, left thousands of people in my electorate in the lurch, without employment prospects. Also in this mix is the car industry. Ford, a big employer in my electorate, was ditched by this government. So you'll have to forgive my community if they don't believe subscribe to the so-called goodwill of companies to trickle prosperity down to them.

In my electorate, I have a huge number of refugees who have come here in recent years from Syria and Iraq. These people cannot find employment. It is not because they don't want to; it is because they happen to be in a very unusual place. Many of them are highly qualified but their skills are not recognised here. I have spoken about this many times before. They want to make a contribution but they have to suffer the indignity of having Job Network providers who are totally useless in responding to their needs. So their prospects for employment are not enhanced under this government's watch.

Manufacturing and innovation are key to not only Australia's future but also the future of the northern suburbs of Melbourne, where my electorate of Calwell is. Yesterday, Dulux officially opened a paint plant at the Merrifield Business Park in Mickleham, very strongly supported by the Victorian Labor government. In opening this plant in my electorate, Dulux has created 60 local jobs, which for us is a significant number of prospective jobs.

The government, in attempting to amend the research and development tax incentive in an effort to better target it, has turned the offsets into a disincentive. Research and development are fundamental to innovation, advancing manufacturing and creating jobs. Currently companies can claim 8.5 percentage points above the company tax rate for their R&D expenditure up to $100 million. The new amendments will introduce progressive rates for the incentive, affecting companies with an aggregated annual turnover of more than $20 million. These rates will be tied to the amount the company spends on R&D as a proportion of total expenditure. These changes will do the opposite of incentivising companies to invest in Australia. Most established Australian companies spend less than two per cent of their expenditure on R&D. This is because they committed to investing in local jobs, local resources and other local businesses. The rate of their incentive will go from 8.5 per cent to four per cent. Under these changes, Dulux, which has just opened up a plant in my electorate, could lose around $100,000 each year. So, to keep other aspects of their business here, companies will likely decrease their R&D, spend more and more, and either pay someone else to do it or move R&D offshore, therefore depleting Australia of its intellectual capital as well.

Our country was built by strong, established businesses providing stable and decent jobs. Our future depends on workers finding the same security in Australian businesses as our industries advance. Small to medium enterprises in my electorate are leading in innovation and manufacturing, particularly food manufacturing. They are desperately trying to create jobs for our local community and I'm wondering why they're not given enough assistance from this government. Of course, one of their biggest problems, as everyone in this chamber would know, is the high cost of energy. I have some users facing high energy costs in my electorate. They are actually suffering and struggling to stay afloat.

Recently I spoke about car manufacturing, but I also want to speak on behalf of my constituents who own local car repair businesses in my electorate. They are absolutely thrilled that Labor is supporting legislation that will force car manufacturers to share their data with small businesses and loosen the stranglehold they have on the car service and repair market. In February, I visited the family business of Damien and Debbie Theuma of Active Motor Repairs in Craigieburn. They and other business owners detailed the difficulties they were facing with the advent of car dealerships monopolising the repair and warranty market. The lack of data sharing, in particular, has affected their businesses and highlighted the importance of legislating a mandatory code for data sharing. Business owners like Damien and Debbie feel that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry's report into the car retailing industry, which was released in December 2017, should be adopted in its entirety. In short, the report concluded that vehicle manufacturers who sell into the Australian market limit access to service and repair information for independent repairers. The report also found that this created an artificial monopoly and allowed manufacturers to inflate the mark-ups on servicing and repairs. Laws in the USA and the EU prevent this abuse of market power.

The ACCC's report concluded that independent repairers were experiencing issues gaining access to technical information needed to repair and service new cars. Access to technical information held by car manufacturers was becoming increasingly important as repairing and servicing new cars relies on access to electronic information and data produced by car manufacturers. Car manufacturers had previously committed to providing independent repairers with the same access to technical information as the manufacturers' authorised dealers on commercially fair and reasonable terms. However, the ACCC discovered problems with the detail and time lines of the technical information given. The ACCC considered that independent repairers having access to this technical information was important to ensure competition and, ultimately, to benefit consumers. The ACCC proposed a mandatory scheme for car manufacturers to share technical information. The mandatory code recommendation is supported by Labor and all the independent repairer associations; the consumer bodies; the auto associations, including the NRMA and the RACQ; the insurance industry the new car dealers association; and all the major auto repair chains—for example, Kmart Tyre and Auto Service, Repco Authorised Car Service and Bridgestone.

I wrote to the Treasurer on behalf of my constituents, detailing my support for the independent car repairers. In April, the Treasurer wrote back saying that the market study would 'inform the government's further consideration of these important issues'. While the government and the Treasurer are considering what to do, Labor has acted and come out in support of small businesses and their need to access data to ensure their survival. Under a Labor government, car manufacturers would be required to share information about their vehicles with every Australian mechanic. Australia-wide, this means a boost of 23,000 independent mechanics and will allow car owners more choice when it comes to servicing and repairing their vehicles. We will stick up for small business, for Aussie trades, and keeping the costs of living down for families, as Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has said.

Independent mechanics have been going to the wall while the Turnbull government sits on its hands. There is no reason that this reform shouldn't be implemented immediately, in particular in the car repair sector, which traditionally attracts lots of young people, particularly young men, with apprenticeships and pathways for job opportunities into the future. It is an absolute disgrace that this government can sit on its hands while local car repairers face the prospect of being put out of business by car manufacturers who are behaving in a way that my constituents are right about.

Corporate culture does not take into consideration the needs of people and does not put the needs of people ahead of its profit-making culture. That is why my constituents do not subscribe to the trickle-down theory, that is why they oppose the corporate tax cuts, and that is why this government's priority is all wrong. It's all wrong in relation to the people that I represent who need assistance from the government in order to be able to meet the cost of living, find jobs and get on with living their lives and supporting their families, their children and their neighbourhoods.

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