Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Jobkeeper Payments) Amendment Bill 2020. My friend, in his contribution, ended with the words 'jobs, jobs, jobs', and I'm going to begin where he ended. When we look back over this pandemic, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, and we review how we dealt with this one-in-100-year challenge to our nation, I think the establishment of JobKeeper, and now its extension, will be seen as the single most significant decision taken, particularly as it relates to saving livelihoods. There are equally important decisions that have been made around saving lives but, when it comes to saving livelihoods, JobKeeper, in my view, is where it starts and finishes. In my electorate, 3,700 businesses have taken advantage of these measures. I don't know how many employees are benefitting, but I can only imagine that it runs to the tens of thousands.

Now, in my community, when I walk around I am beginning to have these sheepish conversations with business operators who are almost somewhat embarrassed to concede that they are in receipt of JobKeeper. On the quiet, almost like those shy conservatives that delivered Trump to the White House and that delivered us our last election, they just want to point out that it was this measure that saved their business.

On a number of those occasions, I've got to tell you, I've been quite surprised. When you live in a very small, close-knit regional community you get to know people's businesses, or at least you think you do. Of the number of people approaching me, I was surprised by the number who operate businesses that I thought would have a trading position that would have meant that, sure, they'd be in receipt of JobKeeper because turnover had reduced below the requisite amount, but JobKeeper wouldn't have been the difference between business and no business. But that is, in fact, what I've come to learn.

In highlighting the importance of these amendments and the extension, which I think ought to be celebrated as much for the fact that it shows how dynamic this parliament and our government can be in responding to the challenge, noting that, obviously, we established JobKeeper, and this now is about extending it well past the initial deadline of the end of next month through to March 2021—and noting that this is the first opportunity I've had to speak in this place about the measure at all—I want to take this place back to what was the darkest moment for me in this pandemic. I'm based in Mount Gambier. My staff and I were following all the relevant health advice. I'd ask my staff to work from home, like I'm sure many in this place did. I was at home following that direction, but, getting a little stir crazy, I'd want to go into the office, so I'd walk down the main street and go to the office. There was no-one else there, so, in a sense, I was self-isolating—no problem. I would walk past a cafe. I've come to know Josslyn Lee and Lucy Von Stanke, who operate this cafe, very closely, because it's right next to my office. They're young, innovative entrepreneurs employing a large number of people in my electorate. I would walk past and I would see them go from completely closed to operating on a part-time takeaway basis. My lowest moment thus far in this pandemic was when, on one of these occasions, I was walking home—I know they'd been trading on an exclusively takeaway basis for a while, probably because I was close to their best customer—and I saw them sharing a bottle of champagne in the front window of the restaurant. I thought things were on the up, so I gave them the thumbs up. They gave me the thumbs down. So I thought, 'I'd better go in there and ask.' I popped in and said, 'Lucy and Joss, what's up?' They said: 'Look, we can't trade on this takeaway-only basis. We're going to have to close again.' But that wasn't the lowest moment. The lowest moment was after I'd told them that we were making arrangements in relation to commercial leases—they were quite happy about that; in fact, they were relieved—and Lucy, who I've known for a long time, said to me, 'But what about us?' At that time we hadn't announced JobKeeper. In fact, it was still in its development phase and there was no way I could talk to them about it. I said, 'It's JobSeeker.' That was a low moment because here were two 20-something entrepreneurs in my electorate, who employ 35 people, and the best we could get was JobSeeker.

I've got to tell you, Lucy and Joss are the greatest supporters of JobKeeper that I can find in my electorate. As I said, there are 3,699 other businesses but these two young women are so passionate about the fact that they were given an opportunity to continue to employ their staff, and to continue on their small business dream, that they've become massive advocates. I've got to tell you their dream is not to be in receipt of JobKeeper forever, but they're simply so grateful that it was there, a safety net if you like to catch them as they fell in consequence of the economic impact of the pandemic.

Lucy and Joss are by no means unique. I expect there are Lucys and there are Josses throughout the country. In my electorate, whether it's Karen Milesi at the Murray Bridge Hotel, who employs 18 staff on JobKeeper; whether it is Tom Kosch at the Commodore on the Park, who employs 27 on JobKeeper; whether it is Toni Vorenas from Metro Bakery and Cafe, who employs 15 staff, many of whom are at-risk individuals; whether it's Thyme at the Lakes, who employ seven staff—I would love to be able to stand here and run through each one of these businesses individually, because these businesses represent lifetimes of work.

As a nation, forgetting about which side of this place we stand on, this parliament has done some of its best work to make sure these businesses fell into a safety net that ensured employees were able to remain connected to those businesses and able to remain employed. Even for those businesses for whom the health advice at certain periods meant they couldn't even be open, I saw those employees going to work. It might have been painting the front bar, retiling the bathrooms or cleaning the fridges, but what it meant was that people were maintaining their usual routines. They were going to work. They were interacting socially.

As an employer now in one context who has resisted for a very long time the requests to work from home, or work from anywhere as we call it, I kind of fell in love with it. I thought, 'This is great.' I will tell you who didn't fall in love with it: my staff. They wanted to come back to the office so that they could socialise with each other, and I think to get away from their families. The advantage of this period—

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