Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

It's great to be back in parliament and be able to speak today. A lot of Australians are doing it tough right now, more than ever before. The coronavirus is unprecedented in our lifetime. We've never seen anything like this current health crisis. The Morrison government is acting to ensure that all Australians are supported through this crisis. We've seen firsthand how the government is managing the economy in the interests of all Australians. We're seeing that right now, beginning with the effective management of our current health crisis.

Australia's position, of course, is the envy of the world. We know that Australia and some other countries, like Taiwan, are doing exceptionally well. Australia, with our low death rate, low infection rate and high testing rate is brilliant. But what the Prime Minister has said to me and others is that, while that's good, in order to really measure success we need to maintain that great health record and open up the economy. The Australian government, of course—and the Prime Minister, working within the National Cabinet—has shown strength and acted efficiently and effectively to deliver, for Australians, best international practice. The government hasn't left people behind. We've seen massive investment, some $320 billion, to keep Australians in jobs and connected with their employers, keeping businesses in business, supporting households and keeping investment flowing. These measures of course include the JobKeeper payment, which keeps employees connected with their employers, because without that payment so many more people—tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands more—would have been looking for work.

The jobseeker payment has helped so many people who, for the first time in their lives, have actually been looking for work and dependent on government. These are people who have never depended on government before, who have been getting on with their life, raising their family, paying off their house and working hard, and who, through no fault of their own or their employer's, have found themselves without work.

We've supported the community with things like the Community Support Package, with emergency relief for food, petrol and all sorts of things. I was down at Encircle in my electorate of Petrie the other day, with the driveway service, loading parcels into cars for people who haven't used that service before—and I'm not talking about homeless people. In relation to homelessness, of course, we invest over $1.6 billion a year through the states and territories. And I must say the states and territories have done a great job in helping people to be housed, particularly those people at risk of coronavirus—people who are in boarding houses, sleeping rough or in overcrowded situations. And don't forget Commonwealth rent assistance. We invest over $4½ billion a year there.

When I talk to people in my electorate, the feedback they give me is important, and I'm listening. Any good federal member should. Ryan Elson said today: 'I think the federal government, on the whole, is doing a great job. We need to have business return as soon as possible, though. In our future, less reliance on overseas manufacturing is a must and we must return to manufacturing in Australia.' Today, the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology spoke about Packer Leather, in my electorate, which employs some 100 people. I think also of Ty Hermans, a man who lives in my electorate. Ty runs Evolve Group, which is reshoring manufacturing from China back here. Evolve currently makes PPE equipment and Seabins. The Seabin is a new product now being manufactured at Evolve. They go to cleaning up our oceans, collecting plastic and so forth. I've just installed three of them at Newport Marina.

Here is another comment, from Ian Leslie: 'Given the circumstances, the Australian government is doing a great job. Yes, there is a lot of spending, and we can build our way out of it by Australian programs.' Christine Standfast says: 'We need to open businesses that can. This 10-person hospitality venue is too restrictive.'

Not only do we need to listen to health professionals; we also need to listen to our businesses about how they can make their businesses COVID-safe, so we can open up the economy as quickly as possible and get people back to work. I'm so proud of my electorate, the people in it and what they've done. I put that on the record.

See this speech in context