Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

The coronavirus pandemic has created an unprecedented economic crisis in our nation. Our economy is in recession. Millions of workers have lost their jobs, been stood down or had their hours cut. Mortgages and rental payments are on hold. Small businesses have folded, and people have lost their jobs. Kids have been taken out of child care. Family holidays have been abandoned. The nation is doing it tough. Australians are doing it really tough. But what's worrying and sad about the predicament we're in at the moment is that things are predicted to get much worse economically. We know that the government's own estimates are that an additional 400,000 Australian workers will lose their jobs before the end of this year. That's backed by the Reserve Bank's analysis.

Just yesterday, Qantas and Jetstar announced a further 2,500 ground staff workers would lose their jobs, many of them, unfortunately, in the electorate that I represent. I say to those workers: I and my office are here to help you. If you wish to discuss any of the elements of your redundancy or what occurred for you, or just want someone to talk to about it, please feel free to call my office. That extends to all workers in our community who've been impacted by this terrible pandemic and the recession.

In times of crisis like this, it's up to government to step in and provide leadership to support businesses and jobs and to provide the plan to get Australians back to work and get the economy up and running again. Unfortunately, sadly, I don't think we've got that plan from the government yet. I think, really, that the government underestimated just how bad this pandemic would be and how long-lasting the effects would be economically. That's evident in the fact they were late to the party in coming up with policies and proposals to support people in our economy. They were late to the party not only around some of the health elements, particularly those associated with aged care and developing a plan to deal with coronavirus in aged-care facilities, but also when it came to supporting jobs and ensuring that Australians had the relief that they needed to get through this difficult period. It was Labor that called for the establishment of a wage subsidy. It was Labor that called for rental relief and mortgage holidays for homeowners and tenants throughout the country. It's been Labor that's been calling for the government to develop a jobs plan to bring our economy out of this recession and to get people back into work.

Thankfully, the government listened to what Labor was saying and implemented JobKeeper, a wage subsidy that would support Australians during this difficult period, particularly those that have been stood down from their positions because demand in the businesses that they work in had dried up. There've been problems in JobKeeper that Labor has pointed out in this parliament, but we've supported the notion and we've supported all of the legislation that's gone through the parliament on this.

There have been problems with university staff missing out—people who work part time and casually, particularly those in the education sector. There are people in the arts industry and the hospitality industry who've missed out as well. Despite the fact that the people working in these industries are all Australians, they all pay taxes and they all deserve support, this government abandoned them in their time of need. It was harrowing to have to go to Sydney airport a couple of months ago and stand with and listen to dnata workers who have been abandoned by this government simply because of the corporate structure that they happen to work for. We have the ridiculous situation of people who make the food for airlines in this country not receiving JobKeeper but the people on the plane who hand the food out getting it. That's not fair. Labor has pushed these issues and encouraged the government to extend that to those workers. Unfortunately, they have failed to do so.

When the government initiated JobKeeper I thoroughly believed that they thought this crisis would be over by September, that we would have got it under control and things would be back in hand and we'd be able to open up the economy once again. That's evident in the fact that the expiry date of the JobKeeper program, and the legislation, is the end of September. That's why this bill is required—to extend those provisions beyond September and well into next year to ensure that workers, businesses, families and individuals have the support they deserve. That's why I'll be supporting this bill and that's why Labor is supporting this bill—to extend that important support to Australian workers and to businesses and to families that need it.

We're saying that this is simply not enough. Simply coming into the parliament with a bill to extend JobKeeper is not enough. The government needs to develop a plan that supports jobs beyond the recession, brings the economy out of recession and gets demand up and running again and supports businesses. We all know that this economic crisis is going to last well beyond the pandemic. Australians deserve to know now what the plan is to get the economy up and running again and to get people back into work. We know that the economic shock is going to last well beyond this year. You don't need Labor to tell you that. All the economic commentators, including the Reserve Bank governor, are saying unemployment is expected to peak late next year at 10 per cent—not late this year but late next year. There are still going to be a lot of people out of work towards the latter half of next year. And particular industries are going to do it really tough over the coming two years. They include the construction industry, the retail industry, travel and tourism, which has been absolutely smashed, and the aviation sector. We are all going to feel the burden beyond the pandemic. The economic crisis is going to last for a very long time.

I say to the government: what's the plan to ensure that, when the pandemic ends, there is support for businesses to get up and running again, for people to be employed once JobKeeper runs out? Where is the plan to stimulate that economic growth in our economy once again? It's not there at the moment. Australians deserve to know what that plan is, or indeed what the government is working on, because to date they have had zilch from the Treasurer and the Prime Minister about that.

When Labor was in government and we were hit with the financial crisis, the Prime Minister and the cabinet worked immediately on establishing a plan to support jobs and build our economy. It included programs like the Building the Education Revolution, which provided important upgrades to school infrastructure and facilities and boosted the educational opportunities of our kids. Importantly, it provided jobs for people in the construction sector within local communities, with a focus on employing locals. We invested in social housing, building public assets that provide a welfare benefit to people in our community who are struggling, alleviating some of the problems we had in the country around homelessness and a lack of access to housing. They are some of the things that Labor did when we were in government, that we came up with, that were a plan to support jobs beyond the global financial crisis, and the results speak for themselves. Australia was the only developed economy in the world that avoided a recession, that managed to ensure that people didn't lose work on a wholesale scale throughout the country.

The government needs to do a similar thing. It needs to heed the advice that Labor took when we were in government in developing our plan to support jobs beyond the global financial crisis, and it needs to do it now. The Australian people deserve to know what the government's plan to support jobs and businesses beyond the pandemic is going to be. They deserve to know what its prospects for employment are going to look like beyond this year. Labor has been again constructive in offering suggestions to the government about areas in which we believe we could almost immediately begin rolling out programs that would improve public infrastructure and support jobs. One of those areas is social housing. We all know as local members the backlog of maintenance and issues with social housing that exist within our communities. These are problems that can be fixed and provide jobs for tradespeople and other people working in the construction sector—that vital sector of our economy—in Australia almost immediately. In doing so we would improve and upgrade publicly owned assets, assets that are important in providing a roof over the head of many Australians, particularly those who are on low incomes, those who have mental health issues or disability issues and aren't able to work and those who have been homeless in the past and need a roof over their head. It's a targeted outcome that would support better social outcomes and support jobs in our economy.

There are plenty of opportunities to begin programs of upgrading existing infrastructure. Here's an idea: why don't we look at improving Australia's road network to make it safer, particularly rural and regional roads, where we know there's a history of accidents and injury? Look at programs to widen shoulders, introduce audible markings along the sides of the roads and introduce anticollision wires that run down the middle of roads. These are upgrades to public infrastructure that could be undertaken almost immediately and would support jobs in the construction sector and ancillary industries associated with that but, importantly, would at the same time upgrade public infrastructure and assets and provide a productivity benefit to the country. Labor has also said that the government should look at and investigate getting on with the development of high-speed rail up the east coast of Australia. That could begin with the process of reserving the corridor. Procuring the land is the greatest expense in a project like that. It could begin almost immediately and would provide jobs for Australians.

Those are three areas in which Labor has suggested constructively that the government could act, but so far, we've heard nothing from this government. Australians can't wait. They're in desperate, dire need of leadership from this government, and it's not coming.

I'll turn quickly to the industrial relations changes that the government has made. This bill contains an extension of some of those changes to industrial relations laws. Workers, unions and Labor have been cooperative around suspending some of the provisions of awards and enterprise bargaining agreements. We've done this in good faith to get the nation through this pandemic and this difficult situation. This bill provides a further extension of some of those provisions. Labor will again support it in good faith, but my concern is that you can't trust those opposite. I am concerned that members of this government will attempt to turn these temporary measures into permanent measures.

We've already seen Senator Bragg say that the changes to early-release superannuation should be made permanent and that people should be able to access their superannuation whenever they want and raid their superannuation accounts. Well, that's not on. Labor won't support changes like that that dud Australian workers. I warn those opposite: don't try and dud Australian workers. Don't seek to make these changes permanent, because we will fight you. We'll fight you because that will be dishonest, that will be deceitful, that will be immoral and that's not the right thing to do by Australian workers during this time of difficulty when they've placed their trust in you and given you the opportunity to suspend some of those provisions in good faith. Don't dud Australian workers, because if you do we will fight you.

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