Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is fair to say that Australians have done a remarkable job since the onset of the COVID-19 virus, and that means the government, in part, with its health response; the opposition with its constructive response; state governments; business; and our frontline medical staff. Everyone's had a pretty good response to our health situation. I think, for many days of the virus, Australians realised how lucky we are to be Australian.

But I think there is now an emerging concern that, as we move from the public health emergency to the economic challenge, not all Australians are being included in the economic recovery. Too many people are being forgotten. In parliament, we've heard my colleagues in the opposition refer to the staff of universities, many of whom are going to feel the impact of the virus economically. We've heard about the arts sector, which if you ask them—despite the protests of the government—feel largely ignored. We've heard about the disgusting and appalling treatment of dnata workers, who, merely because the company that employs them is based overseas, even though they're Australians paying taxes in Australia, are being abandoned.

Mr Tim Wilson interjecting—

The member for Goldstein, who's no doubt never seen a foreign equity investment he didn't like, says it is because the company's foreign owned. Well, the Australian workers don't get treated specially or preferentially. They don't get to pass on paying Australian taxes, paying the wages of the member for Goldstein, merely because their company's foreign owned. We talk about local government workers. We talk about accommodation industry people. We talk about the travel industry. There are a lot of people doing it very hard: casuals; people who work in the deregulated employment market; the recipients of childcare support; disability day services, who have now not been funded; and people with disability on their NDIS packages, who are coping with increased costs. Of course, heaven forbid we should ever mention the Centrelink recipients who were unlawfully ripped off by the government over the years! But the Prime Minister says that we're on the road back. Labor's concerned that not everyone is included in his big tent or in his vehicle as they drive on the road back, and that's what Labor wants to do: to make sure that no-one gets left behind.

I'd like to talk about an even larger group of unsung heroes who face the government's policies with some anxiety and trepidation. The unsung heroes I would like to finish on are the three million people who have lost their jobs, the small businesses who closed and the people who have been relying on either JobKeeper or other government payments. What happens to them when the hammer of this government's policy drops in September? These are the unsung heroes. I say 'unsung heroes' because a small business which has had to close its doors, a shop in the high street, a dnata worker, a casual worker or an arts worker—one of those people I listed before—has done nothing wrong. They actually have taken one for the team. Australians have accepted losing their jobs or losing their income because there was a public health emergency. They have understood, without rancour. They have largely taken on the chin that the things which have happened to them economically have happened because the nation needed to close its borders and because we needed to have social distancing, so we couldn't go to the show, assemble in crowds, watch the footy or see the cinema. These unsung heroes—there are millions of them who are on JobKeeper or jobseeker—are anxious about what happens in September, and I think a lot more Australians are anxious about the pace of economic recovery, the mortgage defaults and the pressure on their jobs. Will their employer take the opportunity to lay them off? There are millions of Australians who have tightened their belts and gone through this difficulty—small business people and pay-as-you-go employees. They are anxious about what happens in September.

So, when the Prime Minister says we're on the road back, what is he really saying will happen in September to all of these people who have lost their jobs through no lack of effort and through no fault of their own but because this government couldn't stop the virus at the borders? We're not saying it could. You could argue they should have shut the borders earlier, but we get that it's happened. But there are millions of our fellow Australians, unsung heroes, who have taken one for the team. We put this government on notice: you're not going to be able to drop the hammer on them without coming through us first.

See this speech in context