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

Those on the other side can heckle. I don't mind. I'm sure there will be lots of silver linings on this dark COVID cloud and no doubt dark it is. There will be lots of silver linings. I think one of the silver linings will be that employers like me who were perhaps somewhat reluctant to think about the ability and the flexibility of working from anywhere have now learnt that this is amazing technology. It has created productivity benefits. Whilst it is not, I think, something that people want to do all day every day, or at least many don't want to do it all day every day—some have to—there's the opportunity and the flexibility to do that. I'm prepared, notwithstanding the heckles that will come, to tell you that I'm the bloke who's still looking for the 'any key' on my computer. I am a Neanderthal when it comes to technology, but I have had to learn about these things and it's amazing—

Opposition members interjecting—

I wish the member for Hunter was here, because I could have some fun with his pro-coal stance. He loves coal. We love coal. I love coal. I love cheap electricity to be honest. I love how 'coal' and 'Joel' rhyme. It is just such an opportunity.

I love that those opposite have come in—I don't think it is to listen to me. I expect that one of our members is about to make her first speech in this place and I congratulate her for that. I think I've worked that out—

Opposition members interjecting—

No, it something else. They have come in for me. That is all good. What I can say is there are 3,700 businesses in my electorate that are benefiting from this scheme. I can only think that runs to tens of thousands of employees who otherwise would have had their employment ended and the connection between their employer and themselves severed. Who knows what economic damage that would have done to the lives and livelihoods of those employees in Barker.

As I said earlier, this amendment bill talks to our ability to be dynamic in this space, to listen closely to the needs and to watch how this pandemic develops over time. Clearly, it has developed. The circumstances in Victoria are incredibly sad and they are challenging everywhere else in Australia. But this amendment bill talks to our ability to be dynamic, to stand alongside the employers of this country and their employees and to support them in this very difficult time. I commend the bill to the House.

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