Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As we know, in 2020, Australians are living through a global pandemic. They're also living through the reality of the worst national account figures since the 1930s. As it is across the country, people in my community of Dunkley are feeling the economic impacts—there is no doubt—and also the mental health and other impacts of the restrictions that we are living through in order to save lives and suppress the virus. There is no doubt that reviving economic growth and creating jobs are critical challenges facing Australia's leaders and will be for many years to come. As we imagine a post-COVID or COVID-normal Australia, whatever they may be, we also need to ask ourselves: are the traditional measures of national income, such as GDP, sufficient indicators of our progress? I don't believe that they are. As economist Simon Kuznets said:

The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measure of national income.

In a speech to the University of Kansas back in 1938, Senator Robert Kennedy noted:

The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

So, while economic prosperity, fairly shared, must play a central role in our national agenda, in order for Australia and Australians to truly thrive, that economic prosperity should be embedded in a larger story of wellbeing—a story of people and of communities; a story of the places that we live in and that we love.

Reflecting on the way in which my constituents in Dunkley have responded to the challenges of 2020 and the issues that they have asked me, as their federal member, to champion in this place, they describe to me social connectedness, opportunities to participate in community, equitable access to physical and mental health support, employment and education, and the preservation of our local environment as part of our national and global environment. There is no doubt that people in my community care about economic growth, but they care about a lot more as well. In July this year—which simultaneously seems like not a long time ago and approximately 20 years ago—more than 70 locals responded to an open invitation that I put out on Facebook to attend a virtual charities and community groups forum. At the start of this forum, there was some discussion about the dearth of government funding and support for individual and group projects—at all levels of government, it must be said—but very quickly the participants themselves drove the conversation towards how they could work together to deliver programs and resources for those in our community who find themselves isolated or disadvantaged. Rather than pushing their own barrels, our charities in Frankston, Carrum Downs, Langwarrin, Mount Eliza, and all of the suburbs in Dunkley, and the community groups, sporting groups and arts societies that were there all wanted to explore with each other what they could do together, because they knew that together they could achieve what none of them could ever hope to do alone.

So, as I speak today on this appropriations bill, on the budget that the government has handed down in this historic year, the message I want to bring foremost to the debate from my community is that we genuinely are all in this together and now is not the time in our nation's journey for piecemeal, short-sighted or divisive leadership. Now is the time to do what we need to do to get through the crisis we're facing but to also step back for a moment and reflect—because not only can we grow wealthy again; we can also grow wise and well by working together towards the future we want.

In that spirit, I want to put forward a number of suggestions that I would ask the government to look at and consider as they move forward over the next 12 months. Some of them we know the government won't accept, but I will continue to put them, and others I put forward as ideas that I think are worthy of consideration. So, rather than taking this opportunity to attack the government, I want to take this opportunity to say, 'Here are some things that, on behalf of my community, I would like you to consider.'

Having had a forum with childcare workers in Victoria, I would like the government to consider restoring JobKeeper to Victorian childcare workers and to help that very female dominated industry, the workers and the people who run the centres to continue to function. I would like the government to look at what is happening to Victorian businesses, in particular, and keep JobKeeper at its initial level through the second wave and as we come out of it. We know that, in the same two weeks that the level of JobKeeper was cut, there were 110,000 jobs lost across Australia in every state and territory, not just in Victoria—but we are doing it hard in Victoria, because we have had a second wave that we have had to deal with.

I would like the government to do more than lean into the idea that Newstart can't go back to $40 a day as at December, and actually commit to a long-term increase to unemployment benefits that is above the poverty line—not just because so many more people will be relying on unemployment benefits, sadly, over the next 12 months but also because it's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do to help people to be able to function as they're looking for work and to help people to be able to look after their families as they're looking for work.

I would like the government to look at travel agents and the travel industry. Travel agents in my community participated in a Zoom forum with me last week. It's not their fault that international borders have been closed—as they had to be closed. It's not their fault that the COVID virus appears to be raging around most of the rest of the world who haven't had the same success as Victoria in suppressing a second wave. It's not their fault that they not only are devastated now but also can't see where their income will come in the next 12 months. They need some targeted assistance, because they tell me that the measures in the budget aren't going to assist them.

I would like the government to look at how to provide more support for not only the workers over the age of 35 who were unemployed before the pandemic but also, particularly, the almost one million workers over the age of 45 who have lost their jobs during the pandemic to help them get back into work. The Restart program, though well intentioned, isn't working and hasn't been working to help older workers find long-term, secure work. There is more and more evidence coming out that shows that, if you are over the age of 50 and you lose your job, it is almost impossible to find another job. That is wrong for people but it is also wrong for our economy that people who are sometimes in the prime of their working life are on the scrap heap. So I would like the government to work more towards doing that.

I'd like the government to build on the things that it started to do recently to help bring home more Australians who have found themselves stranded overseas because of border closures. I would like the government to look at some of the policies that Anthony Albanese announced in his budget reply speech, including, importantly, rewiring the electricity grid, so that we can genuinely become a renewable superpower and so that our electricity grid can be the NBN of energy and be fit for purpose for this century and as we go forward.

It would be remiss of me not to ask the government, on behalf of the many constituents who have contacted me about their or their parents' experiences in aged care, before the pandemic and now, to look at investing more money into that system. I'd also ask them to do more than just invest more money and really look at how we can fix that broken system. It's a system that has been undermined for many years, but the government have the opportunity now to do something about it, and I respectfully request that they do more about it. There are 100,000 people waiting for home-care packages. Keeping people at home for as long as possible is absolutely in their and their family's best interests.

Affordable child care is an economic stimulus investment. It's about productivity. It's about more women being able to be in the workforce. It's also about something that I don't think has been spoken about much yet in the national conversation. I can anecdotally point to my friends and say affordable child care and allowing women to go back to work more days a week is about helping women's career progress. Often women's careers are stunted for a period of time when they have young children, because their colleagues are working full time and they're not able to. It's also a very good measure to stimulate our economy. It's about disposable income—and the Grattan Institute has put out a report that I think is very important to look at.

People are now talking about our arts and culture industry and the over $100 billion that it contributes to the economy every year. This is now an opportunity, because it has been hit so badly by the pandemic, to look at developing an arts and culture strategy and policy for this country, not just for now but for the future. It's an opportunity for the Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts to grab this opportunity, develop a new form of Paul Keating's Creative Nation and really support Australian voices, faces and talent in this country as we go forward.

I would like to see greater investment in homelessness services and social housing.

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