Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Since the Minister for Health first announced that this app would be central to Australia's fight against the pandemic, many constituents have contacted me concerned about what this app entails. They wanted to know that their personal data would only be used to respond to the pandemic and would not be exploited by government. What would happen to their personal data after deleting the app? Could they be forced to download the app or upload their personal data, particularly by their employers? To be fair, I wondered these things myself.

When I first studied the government's proposal, I laid out three tests the government would have to meet to win my support. It had to be voluntary, temporary and secure. 'Voluntary' means people cannot be forced to download the app by their employer, the government or any services they wish to use. 'Temporary' means that, once this pandemic has passed, the app is dismantled and the data it stored is completely erased. 'Secure' means legislated privacy protections for all those who download it. The privacy safeguards in the bill meet my three tests and they will allay the concerns of many Australians who, when asked to download the app, have justifiably hesitated. While there are clearly gremlins to be ironed out, the public benefit outweighs the issues that have been identified thus far.

This app, of course, is only necessary because Australia continues to face an enormous public health crisis. As a former nurse and a rural health researcher, I understand acutely the impact that this pandemic is having on our health service. The nurses and doctors on the front line of this fight are my former colleagues. Today, on International Nurses Day, I think especially of our nurses and the centrality of their role in the fight against this pandemic. For their expertise, their professionalism, their courage and their compassion as they take on this pandemic, I honour them. When I think of this app and what it could do to help keep a lid on this virus, it's them I think of.

As we relax restrictions, we know there will be outbreaks. To deal with this, the app alone is not enough. The app is not an alternative to social distancing; it's a complement. I'm concerned that the government's messaging on this has been confusing. It's not a catch-all for contact tracing; it's an adjunct to contact tracing. I've even heard stories about people thinking the app itself provides immunity against the virus. We need to be crystal clear that the same lessons we followed still apply even as restrictions lift: stay home when you can, maintain a safe distance from people and wash your hands.

COVID-19 was always more than a health crisis. It's also, of course, an economic one, and this app, by assisting us to trace and contain outbreaks, helps us start carefully and cautiously to reopen the economy. This is critical because the economic picture is dire. Throughout April I conducted an extensive survey of almost 400 businesses across my electorate of Indi to understand precisely how they've been impacted by COVID-19 and whether the support the government offered is sufficient to support them through this difficult period. The results of that survey are sobering. One-third of businesses told me they had lost 100 per cent of their revenue due to the lockdown. Ninety-seven per cent of businesses have been negatively affected. On average for those 400 businesses was a loss of 70 per cent of their revenue. Over a third of them laid off employees.

But beyond the headline figures three things absolutely stood out. Firstly, in my electorate tourism has been so hard hit. Accommodation and food businesses were among the hardest hit. Ninety-nine per cent of accommodation providers and 91 per cent of food businesses reported severe impacts.

Secondly, JobKeeper is leaving many behind. Sole traders in particular were more likely than anyone else to have looked into JobKeeper and decided not to apply. Now, many people have legitimate reasons not to apply, but many sole traders told me they wanted to but they're not eligible or they don't think they're eligible. One participant said there are entire industries—in particular the arts and entertainment industry—that, due to the nature of their employment, will not benefit. People on temporary visas, crucial to many regional businesses, have no support, and in many cases they've been told to go home. Unfortunately, it's not that simple and, if they leave these businesses, many of these businesses will indeed collapse. In a rural area such as mine, they won't open again.

Thirdly, bushfire affected regions are struggling the most. With the bushfires and now COVID-19, these regions have been hit with a double whammy. The data from my research shows that the Alpine and Indigo shires, the most bushfire affected of the LGAs which were hard hit either directly by the bushfires or as an effect of the bushfires, reported the most severe impacts of COVID-19. Towong Shire, the most severely burnt of the bushfire areas, was not far behind. One shop owner told me: 'It's going to take a lot to recover from this year, with fires and now this. It's the ripple effect that's going to impact us for years.' A hotel owner in one small rural community told me: 'We're resilient farming people who are used to tough times. However, on the back of our horrific and devastating bushfire season, our local community is fragile and struggling with this.'

All businesses in Australia have been hit hard, but in bushfire affected regions COVID-19 was not the first hammer blow that they've suffered this year. Just as we need to safeguard our hard-fought gains in tackling the pandemic, we need to do all we can to support small businesses through the difficult time they face. This app, which this legislation implements, is a start. It's a small start and it's part of our fight back.

But reopening the economy—which this app contributes to enabling—by itself, is not enough. From my research with small businesses in Indi, there were six key things that people were calling for again and again. First, small businesses need more targeted and flexible support to survive and grow beyond this COVID-19 crisis. Second, we need to invest in regional infrastructure to support growth post COVID. This means great internet, reliable phone services, and reliable train services into the cities and bigger centres. Crucial is support of our rural local governments, many of whom are working to deliver more with less from a diminishing ratepayer base and federal assistance grant funding that is 0.55 per cent of what it was in 1996. Restoring the value of financial assistance grant funding to one per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue would go a long way to getting rural councils and their residents the stability they need to thrive beyond this crisis, and nowhere more so that in the bushfire affected communities.

Third, we must invest and promote regional tourism. Alpine Shire, in Indi, lost an estimated $90 million in tourism through the bushfires before COVID even happened. We need to invest in the infrastructure of these attractions to bring tourists back once this is over. Fourth, we need to diversify our local industries, especially by producing and buying local. The fires burned through over 6,000 hectares of softwood plantations in Indi, threatening harvesting, haulage and manufacturing jobs in Benalla, Myrtleford and beyond. We have multiple local manufacturers across Indi, in industries as diverse as food manufacturing, steel fabrication, textiles and defence, to name but some. If these workers are to have jobs into the future, we need an innovative industrial strategy in this country, one that harnesses the potential of regional Australia once COVID-19 is past.

Fifth, we need targeted support for the arts sector. The arts employ around 2,100 people in Indi. These are the people who teach our kids to play the piano and dance; it's the bands that perform in local pubs; it's the artists who perform at the HotHouse Theatre. They're being left behind. In the wake of the bushfires, the town of Bright saw something none of us thought we would see: Katy Perry came to town to perform a special concert. Many people have told me how that concert was such an important moment for the community—a night of relief and coming together after a dark time, which helped create a positive energy that the community so badly needed. This is what the arts can do, and we will need more of that once this crisis is over.

Finally, we need accelerated deployment of bushfire funding. The fires were almost six months ago, and many are still waiting on support. This is just not good enough. In Indi, 19 people have applied for bushfire related concessional loans, but none of them have been approved. This application number should be higher, but many people have told me that the process to apply is just too cumbersome and confusing, and with COVID on top of this they just don't know that they have the energy to do it. Six months after the fires, 254 small business support grants have been paid out, but another 84 small businesses are still waiting. These grants are only available to businesses in Alpine and Towong shires. I've been lobbying since the grants were announced for them to be extended to Indigo, Wangaratta, Wodonga and Mansfield shires, all of which were affected by bushfires, especially Indigo, trapped as it was between the Towong and Alpine blazes. Why these LGAs were not included initially is beyond me, and why we are six months down the track and waiting for the Commonwealth and Victorian governments to sort this out is completely perplexing. All up, $12.5 million of grants have come through, when in fact the damage from the fires is in the hundreds of millions. I welcome the government's latest announcement this week, but I will not rest until the bushfire communities—hit twice, by bushfire and COVID—are back on their feet again.

I've written to the Treasurer and to the Victorian government outlining these six practical actions that they could take to better support our regional economy. As we debate the role of this app in supporting the reopening of our economy, it's important that we recognise that there is, indeed, so much work to do beyond the app.

I would like to make one last comment. It is about trust. With this app, the government is asking Australians to trust it. With this app, our ability to reopen our economy depends on the extent that Australians trust their government to get it right. With this app—one tool in our public health response armoury—our ability to literally save lives depends on the extent that Australians trust their government. Yet we come off the back of a drastic collapse in trust in government and democracy. The ANU election study last year found that Australians' satisfaction with democracy is at its lowest since the constitutional crisis in the 1970s. Just 59 per cent of Australians are satisfied with how democracy is working, and just 12 per cent of people think that government is run for all Australians.

That's hardly surprising, because for years some politicians have given us reason to distrust them. Let's remember that the biggest story before COVID-19 washed it from the headlines was sports rorts. Since I was elected I've been talking about the pressing need to restore integrity to our democratic institutions and to regain trust from the Australian people. That was never just an academic exercise. This was always about ensuring that when Australian governments need to take significant policy reform, or take the extraordinary actions that governments sometimes must, they have the necessary trust from the Australian people to do so.

Legislating a robust federal integrity commission is a critical step to restore trust, yet the government has missed its own deadline of last December to release the legislation. In this time of crisis, they've realised now how important trust really is. Everyday Australians have played their part throughout this crisis, and I ask the government to play its part now too and release this legislation.

In supporting the legislation for the app, I'm essentially asking Australians to put their faith in a government that has not always shown that it deserves it. In supporting the bill I'm also calling on the government to introduce the legislation for a federal integrity commission to show Australians that they are worthy of this trust. That commission must be robust. In February I outlined the Beechworth principles—five characteristics of any integrity commission worth its name. They call on the federal integrity commission to have broad jurisdiction, to have one set of rules for everybody, to have appropriate powers to do its job, to hold fair hearings and to be accountable to the parliament. If the government's integrity commission is to restore the trust of the Australian people, I believe it must meet these five Beechworth principles. I'm committed to working with all MPs to ensure it does. Today I support this legislation on the app, but I do so with a call that we support the Australian people in restoring trust to our democracy.

See this speech in context