Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the appropriate bills. The fact is that this is a government whose harsh cuts and cruel decisions continue to hurt Australians, particularly those in regional areas, like in my area on the North Coast of New South Wales. Regional Australia has been left behind by the Liberals and Nationals—left behind by a government that has no plan to create jobs in the regions and no plan to secure a future for our regions, despite the fact that we are now in the Morrison recession. This is a government led by a salesman. That's all he is—a salesman. He is not a leader. In fact, he's such an ineffective Prime Minister, he's running a do-nothing government with absolutely no substantial agenda for the country. There's no plan for jobs, no plan for wages growth, no plan for social housing, no plan for child care, no plan to address the crisis in aged care and no plan for action on climate change.

All we saw in this government's budget is that the Liberals and Nationals will rack up a trillion dollars of debt. But what has the community got for that? The budget doesn't do enough in terms of creating jobs or securing the future. The budget just leaves so many people behind. So many were left behind in this budget. The fact is that the decisions made by the Liberals and Nationals in the budget mean that the Morrison recession will be deeper and longer than necessary. In my area on the New South Wales North Coast we need much greater support. We have 33,000 locals on JobKeeper and over 14,000 people on JobSeeker. They need support and assistance.

The government's leaving Australia with a trillion dollars of debt and not much to show for it. That's $1 trillion of debt, but millions of Australians are left behind, including the over 900,000 people aged 35 and over who are on unemployment benefits, who have been deliberately excluded from those hiring subsidies announced in the budget. In the budget there was no plan to lift the permanent rate of JobSeeker from $40 a day, no plan to tackle insecure work, no plan to create opportunities for women and no plan to improve access to child care. The Morrison recession is the worst in almost a century, and the decisions made by this government are making it so much harder for millions of Australians.

In terms of JobKeeper, so many were left behind, particularly casuals and those in the arts and entertainment sector. This government has really failed to provide adequate assistance to the arts and entertainment sector, which impacts so many people in my region. Unemployment has been too high for too long, and now another 160,000 Australians are estimated to be on the jobless queues by Christmas. As I have said, this is a government with no plan for jobs, no plan for infrastructure investment and no plan for investing in our regions—where we need it. In fact, all we get in the regions is more of the National Party's lies, cuts and chaos. As I've told the House many times, that's all we get—cuts to health, cuts to education, cuts to aged care, cuts to services like Centrelink and NDIS and cuts to TAFE and universities, right across the board.

Of course, one of the most shameful acts of this government is their cuts to aged care. We must always remember that it is our seniors who built this nation. They worked hard, raised their families and paid their taxes. We have a duty as a nation to ensure that every older Australian is treated with dignity and respect and we must ensure that they can access services when they need them. Instead, the Morrison government's crisis in aged care has shown how incompetent they are when it comes to protecting the elderly. Prior to the pandemic—and particularly once the pandemic started—the government were warned by experts that our already troubled aged-care system was vulnerable. They were warned and didn't act, and there have been tragic consequences—and this from a government that shamefully cut $1.7 billion from the aged-care sector. We're seeing the results of those cuts right across the board, and they are hurting some of the most vulnerable in our community.

Shockingly, the budget had no significant funding for residential aged care, but we've seen tragically so many older Australians dying during the pandemic. All we saw were those 23,000 additional home-care packages announced in the budget, but that won't come anywhere close enough to meet the massive demand; we've got over 100,000 Australians on the waiting list for home-care packages. What about them? There are so many of them desperate for those home-care packages. The fact is this government is a disgrace when it comes to aged care, and their legacy will be their incompetence, the $1.7 billion in cuts and all of those tens of thousands of Australians waiting for home-care packages. The government has absolutely no plan for aged care.

Labor has. We've put forward some of those suggestions. Firstly, we need minimum staffing levels in residential care and proper funding, because of those massive waiting lists when it comes to home-care packages, so more people can stay in their homes longer. We also need to see better training for staff in our nursing homes. The fact is the legacy of this government, the Morrison government, when it comes to aged care is quite simply neglect and incompetence. The cuts they've made to aged care and the very tragic results of that are absolutely shameful.

Also, the pandemic has really presented some very unique challenges for the higher education sector in the regions and in my electorate, specifically for the Southern Cross University. Recently the Southern Cross Uni announced a $33 million funding shortfall, which will lead to catastrophic losses of more than 130 local jobs. Seventy-one local staff have taken voluntary redundancies, and there are a further 63 full-time job losses. SCU is a really strong economic driver in our region and produces quality graduates and great research outcomes, and now more than ever we need to be focusing on the fact they need to keep delivering for their students and our community. It's imperative that the Morrison government takes the necessary steps to ensure the survival of Southern Cross Uni, because when you take hundreds of jobs out of a regional area like the North Coast it has a massive impact on the local economy, devastating right across the community.

Southern Cross Uni has identified the need to grow their domestic student numbers, which of course are currently restricted due to the funding caps. They're seeking a removal of those caps and increased funding for alternative entry pathways. An increase in this federal funding will allow SCU to offer far greater opportunities for those students who desperately need to retrain and upskill during the Morrison recession. So I'll continue to call on the government to commit more funding for SCU, and I'll also continue to condemn the government for their unfair increases when it comes to university degrees.

Students and parents right across the North Coast were outraged to learn this government will cruelly increase the cost of university degrees. This is outrageous, particularly for students in the regions. An ordinary four-year degree will now cost about $58,000 for many disciplines, making it so hard for those students from the regions to actually go to university. But, make no mistake, every student who pays more, every student who misses out on a place and every job loss in the university sector is the fault of the Liberals and Nationals. That is the reality. This government is doubling the cost of a university degree for thousands and thousands of Australians, many of those are in regional areas like mine and already experience disadvantage.

The fact is what we want to see, what Labor wants to see, is university and TAFE more affordable, more available and more accessible, because investing in people and education and training is one of the best investments we can make as a nation. Yet, what do we see? Again we're seeing cuts to the university sector and increases in the cost of degrees. What it is is the Liberals and Nationals yet again failing regional communities.

Another major issue in my area that locals constantly raise with me is the need for a national integrity commission. We, in Labor, have made it very clear we'll establish an independent, transparent and powerful national integrity commission. It's been almost three years since the Morrison government claims to have started work on a national integrity commission. But, to date, what's been delivered? Nothing. We heard in question time there's been a draft bill since December 2019, yet we've seen absolutely nothing. Apparently it's too hard to do that at the moment. That's just outrageous! The government have been stalling on this for far too long. In my community and, indeed, right throughout the country, people are calling for a federal ICAC, for a national integrity commission. We see, despite the sports rorts and this ongoing airport-land scandal, the Morrison government just refuses to act. We really did see highlighted, particularly in light of the recent events in New South Wales when we saw the disgraced Liberal MP Daryl Maguire, how important it is to have a national ICAC. We saw shocking evidence in ICAC over the past week confirming that New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian turned a blind eye to the corrupt business dealings of her boyfriend, Liberal MP Daryl Maguire, and she didn't report it to ICAC. All last week I was inundated with people who want to see action when it comes to a federal ICAC.

In terms of the budget itself, it was great to see the Leader of the Opposition's speech in reply and the very important issues he outlined. Firstly, there was the early childhood education and care package. It's so important to have affordable child care, and Labor absolutely has a plan for that. It also has a manufacturing plan and a rewiring-the-nation plan, and it also has a plan to address social housing. It's only Labor that outlined all of those important aspects.

I want to go back to some of the lies, cuts and chaos that we see from the Liberals and Nationals. We don't just see them federally; we also see them at the state and council level in New South Wales. What we know about the New South Wales Berejiklian government is that they're rotten to the core, as was exposed by ICAC over the last few weeks. Let's have a look at some of their lies, cuts and chaos—particularly those of the Tweed Nationals MP, Geoff Provest, and his rotten government—and how they impact us on the North Coast.

First of all, let's have a look at their pay cuts for public servants. These local workers are the heroes of the pandemic, and now they've been forced to suffer a pay cut thanks to the New South Wales Liberal-National government. Nurses, teachers, police, firefighters, paramedics, cleaners—so many fantastic public sector workers—risked their lives to look after us, and what do they get from this government? A pay cut. Outrageous! There's also the lack of health services in regional New South Wales. With recent border closures, what we saw is how underfunded the health and hospital services are in northern New South Wales. It is absolutely outrageous. This has been going on for a long period under the Liberal-National government and must be addressed. It is disgraceful and absolutely shameful.

Talking of shameful actions, it was outrageous to see in the New South Wales state parliament the Liberal-National government voting to essentially kill koalas. That's what we saw. We saw the Tweed Nationals member, Geoff Provest, and his disgraced Liberal and National party mates vote for legislation that will allow for the widespread killing of precious koalas on the North Coast. Make no mistake about it: they all voted for this legislation this afternoon in the New South Wales parliament. They voted for the local land services amendment bill, which will allow private rural landholders and property developers to destroy our koalas through widespread land clearing. This is an act of environmental vandalism. It's absolutely outrageous. My community is angry at the Liberals and Nationals for pushing through this legislation that will allow such harsh action when it comes to our very precious koalas.

Another issue on the North Coast is a lack of protection at our beaches in terms of shark mitigation. We have had many shark sightings on the New South Wales North Coast. We need more drones, smart drum lines and helicopter surveillance, but, of course, we're not getting them from the Liberal-National government or from the Tweed Nationals MP, Geoff Provest. We're not seeing that at all. The fact is that it's just not good enough. While Sydney beaches get lots of protection, on the New South Wales North Coast we're forgotten. We have outstanding surf lifesaving clubs, and they desperately need effective shark mitigation, detection and other general beach and surf safety measures. They need to have those in place. The fact is that the Liberal-National government have failed locals yet again. Labor will always fight for our community—we will always stand with them—and these issues around shark mitigation are vitally important.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank the Tweed deputy mayor, Reece Byrnes, who successfully passed a motion at council to purchase and provide drones for Tweed surf clubs to assist with shark monitoring and swimmer safety. Congratulations on that. But it shouldn't be up to the council to be doing that. Our state government had a plan in terms of shark mitigation. It had a plan. It went to other places in the state, but not enough went to the North Coast at all. We have had so many shark sightings. This is an issue that people constantly raise with me.

Whether it's the federal Liberal-National government or the New South Wales state Liberal-National government, their harsh cuts continue to hurt regional Australia and areas like mine on the New South Wales North Coast. Of course, we're now in the Morrison recession, and this government's trillion-dollar debt has left so many behind. As I said, it's a government with no plan—no plan for jobs, no plan for wages growth, no plan for social housing, which is so desperately needed, no plan for child care, no plan to address the crisis in aged care and no plan for action on climate change, which our community desperately wants to see. When it comes to the regions, we primarily blame the National Party for that. As I've said many times in this place, National Party choices hurt, and they really do hurt the regions. We have particularly seen that when it comes to the budget and the number of people left behind, particularly those older workers—nothing for them—particularly women and particularly people in so many different sectors, like the arts and entertainment sector. They've all been left behind. They were left behind with JobKeeper, as were the casual workers. We've seen such a severe impact in my region, and a lack of support from this government.

We need to see greater investment in our regions. We need to be providing security for the future of the regions and our country, but we're not seeing that from our government. Most importantly, for our young people, we need to see training and education and opportunities they can access to get secure, permanent jobs. We desperately need to see that. I continue to call on this government to invest more in our regions as they've been forgotten in the Morrison government's budget.

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