Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is the procedure of this place that, post an election, the parliament is called and the Governor-General addresses the parliament about the agenda of the newly elected government. I acknowledge, in making this speech, that it is actually quite some months since that occurred, but I think this is an important opportunity for members of this place to talk about the issues that confront the nation and the agenda of the government that has been elected and to express the views of their constituencies on those matters. I want to take the opportunity to do that today.

I want to start by saying that I was very impressed and I thought it was a wonderful thing that the Governor-General made the welcome and acknowledgement of country in the Ngunawal language. It was a really lovely thing to hear the Governor-General of this nation speak those words in the language of the original inhabitants of the place on which we meet, whom we acknowledge as our parliament opens each day. It is important to acknowledge that, in the Governor-General's address outlining the priorities for the government, there were a range of matters on which the newly elected government indicated it would take action in the area of Indigenous Australians—significantly, identifying that the first Aboriginal minister for Indigenous affairs, Mr Ken Wyatt, had been appointed. I welcome that, as many people would have.

I was a bit disappointed with the government's fairly weak commitment in terms of a voice to parliament from our Indigenous Australians. We had the First Peoples of the nation gather at Uluru to express to the parliament of the nation their desire for a structure to create a voice to parliament directly from our First Peoples. I think it is really important to have far more commitment and progress on that. I was particularly proud of Labor's platform at the election, with the commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. But I think it was a very gracious indication by the Governor-General of the respect that he pays to Indigenous people.

I was able to join the Governor-General and his wife, Mrs Hurley, for lunch last Friday in my electorate. They were in the electorate to speak at the Mental Health in the Workplace luncheon that is a regular feature of our calendar in Wollongong. This year it was raising funds for the One Door Illawarra service and some of the programs that they run around people with mental health challenges. They have a wonderful clubhouse there. The local chair, Professor Frank Deane, and deputy chair, Janine Cullen, have done a great job in not only running that service but keeping opportunities for community members who want to be able to give some support. This luncheon is one of the ways that they deliver on that. The Governor-General gave a fantastic speech to that gathering about the importance of workplaces being places where people with mental health issues feel supported and able to continue to contribute. I will say—I'm sure I'm not telling stories out of school, because there were several hundred people at the luncheon—that Mrs Hurley led us in a resounding rendition of a song that she'd written for the One Door Mental Health service, as well as 'You are my Sunshine', and it was just a really lovely thing for her to do. I thought the room was very moved and touched by her contribution as well.

The Governor-General's speech outlined a range of areas in which the newly elected government is seeking to take action, and I want to address those in the time that I have available to me. The first area that his speech went to was the economy and tax reform. In particular, the government outlined some of its priorities around managing the economy. I have to say that, several months down the track, 'much greater effort is required'—as we used to say when I was writing school reports. Only this week we've seen the RBA Board minutes released. They tell us that economic growth is the lowest in a decade, wages are stagnant and employment is fragile.

The reality for so many people in our community is that those who have work know that their wages have been stagnant and simply not keeping up with the cost of living for too long now, and the government of the day doesn't have any solutions for that. It really is a significant area that government must engage on. Those who have a less reliable attachment to the workforce—I'm thinking of people who are in casual employment or contract employment—are increasingly seeing their capacity to earn an income undermined because of this wage stagnation. It is always difficult when you're a casual or contract worker to manage the family budget, or your own budget if you're an individual, and this overall impact on the workforce means that it's even more difficult and more unreliable for people who are in casual or contract work arrangements. And then there are the many people who want to get into the workforce but are dealing with things like the retail sector, which is hugely important in my own area, suffering from the effects of a severe lack of confidence in the economy. These are real issues facing people in my electorate, as they are people across the country, and they are an important part of the story of economic management. As I said, I think the government needs to do better.

The second area the Governor-General's speech went to was regulatory reform and industrial relations. The government has focused a great deal on what it calls 'lawlessness in the union movement'; however, the most concerning stories that have come out in my local area have been about the exploitation of workers. Indeed, only last week my state colleague the member for Wollongong, Paul Scully, had the state shadow minister in Wollongong to talk to students at the University of Wollongong about the sorts of exploitation of young people that they've seen in the workplace. This is certainly something that our local Labor council, the South Coast Labor Council, and affiliated unions have been doing a great deal of work on, and the Illawarra Mercury reported that one of the students—Zak Jory—talked about what had happened to him. He'd worked for more than two years and he'd been underpaid by about $20,000. He'd worked long hours but he didn't get penalty rates or overtime. The international studies student unionised with his fellow workers and he ended up settling with the company, but for a fraction of the wages that he had lost. This story, as told to Paul Scully and the state shadow minister Daniel Mookhey, is not unusual. We hear it constantly. For young people entering the workforce to have their early experiences be ones of exploitation is really unacceptable and something that should be the focus of far more attention by this government rather than the union bashing that they tend to undertake.

The third area that I particularly want to talk about is a priority on infrastructure, and the Governor-General outlined some of the government's priority. For my own area—and I've spoken in this House before and I will not give up talking about this until the government takes some action—there have been no infrastructure commitments for the last seven years. I really need the government to understand that Wollongong is the third-largest city in New South Wales, with a significant commuter base and with a major port that requires a great deal of truck movement, and Wollongong seriously needs an upgrade of its road and rail infrastructure.

I'm very pleased that the Labor team understand the importance of our region and back it in. I was able to go to the election with a $50-million commitment for the Maldon-Dombarton rail link, which is an important part of connecting us to Western and south Western Sydney; $55 million for safety upgrades to the Appin Road, a major arterial road; and $50 million for safety upgrades to the Picton Road, our other major arterial road. These three pieces of infrastructure feeding into our region badly need investment by government, and we, sadly, did not see a single commitment from the Liberal candidate to our transport infrastructure. To be fair, the Liberal candidate in my seat didn't have one commitment across any portfolio area, but the transport area is obviously something that should be about nation building, it should be beyond party politics, and it was very disappointing.

The Governor-General also spoke about the areas of health and mental health that the government was looking at prioritising during this period of the 46th Parliament. I acknowledge that in this space of mental health the One Door Illawarra group, which I mentioned in my opening comments, does fantastic work at their clubhouse. I was able to get a $20,000 commitment for them from a Labor government, if we'd been elected, to do some really important upgrades to that clubhouse to allow them to extend the sorts of activities that they undertake. I'll continue to try and lobby and find that funding for them.

The Governor-General, on behalf of the government, also spoke about the NDIS. I want to say that this is an area where the government really has to pick up its act. I notice our shadow minister making the point today that it's been, I think, over 1,000 days since the head of the NDIA, which runs the NDIS, moved on, and there's been no replacement, even, of the person running the agency that's required to deliver this scheme. There's been a cap on the recruitment of staff, which—as so many people across the chamber must know—is resulting in people taking far too long to get their plans in place, far too long to get their plans reviewed and far too long to have issues that come up dealt with. We find case after case coming through our doors in electorate offices with people who are exhausted, to be honest, from dealing with the NDIA trying to get an appropriate plan in place and to access the services and equipment that they need. And so, in terms of the NDIS, while the government says it is committed to it, it needs to show by its actions far more strongly that it's actually delivering on that.

On the NDIS, I also just want to make the point—it's been raised with me by several local providers, and I've written to the minister about this—that the government made a commitment that there would be additional funding put into packages to allow the service providers to make the adjustments that they need in their organisations in order to be able to deliver—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:08 to 17 : 21

Before the division, I was just making the point that one of the areas in the Governor-General's speech that the government had indicated they were going to prioritise was the NDIS. I made the point that there is the need to appoint a head of the NDIA, the agency that runs the NDIS, and the need to address the fact that there is significant underresourcing because of the cap that's placed on the employment of people who deliver agency decisions. That's causing major gaps in time for getting plans in place and reviewed to ensure that the services and equipment people need are delivered. This is an issue that every electorate office will be dealing with consistently.

I also want to highlight the fact that several of my providers—most of them are not-for-profit providers of long standing in our area—have raised with me their concern that the government made a promise to the sector that it would put boosted additional funding into packages to enable providers to make the adjustments they need to provide services to people. Those could be things like new software or adjustments in staffing and so forth at their organisations. They're very upset that the government has actually gone back on that commitment and is saying to them that they have to take that money out of the client's package. In effect, that takes the money from the client. That's against the providers' ethos, and they are very, very unhappy. I have written to the minister about that.

I want to touch generally on the fact that education was mentioned in the Governor-General's address. Obviously, it was a major area of disagreement between the government and Labor in the election campaign. I'm very disappointed, on behalf of my constituents, not to see the $18 million in additional funding that would have gone into our schools. There was also increased funding for our TAFE and universities, and a much fairer and more accessible early childhood education commitment.

This was particularly so for the University of Wollongong. We had a $10 million commitment for a facility for intelligent fabrication and $1 million to establish a 3D-bioprinting facility. This was for really important research work that our university does in 3D and biotechnology. It would have helped us to build on that. There was also $2.5 million for the Early Start Discovery Space bus. That bus engenders excitement about science, technology and maths in preschool-aged children and is taken to other regions, including to my colleague the member for Gilmore's area, where there are disadvantaged children who aren't able to access the amazing discovery space facility that is at the University of Wollongong.

There was a section on government services, and I won't even begin to go through my gripes with this government on delivering services. When you look at the waiting lists to get processed for the age pension and at the robo-debt scheme and so forth, these are all things I have spoken about in this House before. Government service delivery is an oxymoron. They are not delivering government services in a timely way, in a compassionate way, in even an effective way. It really does need a great deal more attention.

In a similar vein, climate change was listed. Obviously there is a significant disappointment with the government on climate change and, as many of my colleagues have said, a PR exercise and grasping at whatever alternative talking points you can think of, whether it's recycling or plastics in the ocean. As important as they are, they are not an alternative for an energy policy and action on climate change.

I mentioned Indigenous Australians at the beginning, but there's also a section on older Australians. In my area the waiting list for home care packages is a disgrace. The fact that there are people in this nation dying before they receive the home care package that they were assessed as needing is a disgrace, and the impacts on families who are the carers for these elderly people are heartbreaking. It was just not acceptable, in particular, to have women, but also men, come in and tell you that they have had to give up their job in order to be able to look after elderly relatives. It's just devastating for families. There really must be urgent attention given in the aged-care sector. Obviously we have the royal commission, and that is doing important work, but we need action now on so many of these aspects.

Finally, the Governor-General's speech on the government's agenda addressed ending violence against women. This is a very important area in which to take action. It is by and large done on a bipartisan basis. I was very pleased, with my colleague the member for Whitlam, to secure a commitment of $1.5 million for the Illawarra Women's Health Centre to establish a service to support women escaping domestic and family violence. I thought that was a really important initiative that they were looking at putting in place. I will continue to lobby this government to find opportunities for agreements to enable this wonderful service, which does amazing work locally, to be able to run that program on domestic violence.

As I said, I thought the Governor-General did a wonderful job in the presentation of his opening of this parliament. I acknowledge that the agenda outlined by the government was covered in that speech, and I hope I have given some idea about the areas of that that are important in my electorate and where we would like to see more achievement delivered on those priority areas.

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