Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When it comes to this government, the Australian people have learnt to not only listen to what it says but to pay attention to what it does. This budget is a missed opportunity. Never have we seen a budget before that has spent so much to achieve so little. At a time when people are grappling with the challenge of the coronavirus, Australians need, and they deserve, much better than what this government is offering. People need a vision for the future, a vision for jobs, a plan to kickstart the economy and to get us through this recession. However, what we've seen—beyond this government's spin, photo opportunities and rush for headlines—is a $1.4 trillion debt and unacceptably high unemployment. We now have over a million of our fellow Australians out of work.

Nothing in this budget has anything about aged care. There's nothing about social housing, child care and very little to undo the damage that they have done through mismanagement and cuts to vital areas, including our universities, TAFE and vocational education. These areas are actually critical to our future. What the country needs is a government that actually understands community, its desires and its wants and, more importantly, a government that's prepared to put the needs of the community beyond politics. I know it might be rare—they've had seven years to think about this, but they still always prefer politics over community. The community wants a government that is prepared to be focused on the national interest and a government that understands that lives and livelihoods are being lost and destroyed through this pandemic.

The budget handed down by the Morrison government continues to prove this government's lack of understanding of what is needed to get us through this crisis and through this recession which has developed. We have had now a missed opportunity to rebuild our economy and do it for the better, to put forward a plan that delivers a stronger, fairer, more secure and more inclusive future for all Australians. But this budget, I've got to say, fails on this score as this government retreats behind short-term populism and short-term policies simply to get them through to the next election and certainly to get them on the front pages of newspapers and try to actually score on opinion polls. That's what this government has been about—as I said, putting politics ahead of community. I would have thought the smart thing for any responsible government to be doing at this time is looking to deliver the long-term, transformative changes that are necessary for our economy and our nation, and this is what this government has not even attempted to do. This is short-sightedness that simply leaves many Australians behind.

Our economy was already struggling before this pandemic. We had the huge casualisation of employment in all our workplaces. We've had stagnant wages, slow growth and a period with a significant lack of confidence from the business community, and what followed from that is a lack of investment from the business community itself. What's this government's response? They cut wage subsidies and they slashed unemployment benefits—that's pretty critical to areas that I represent. I know the government didn't create this pandemic, but they're the government responsible for actually helping get us out of it. But we have, since the outbreak of the pandemic, a situation where 440,000 jobs have been lost, and, as I understand it, it's now predicted that another 160,000 jobs are expected to be lost by Christmas. This government's response is to cut the level of support.

In my electorate—and I'm sure it's similar to other electorates, such as my colleague's here, the member for Werriwa—checking the statistics, I've got 17,000 people on JobSeeker at the moment, which is almost double what it was prior to the pandemic. At the moment I've got 5,000 businesses in my electorate that are relying on JobKeeper. In an electorate like mine, which certainly is not a rich electorate, the average household income is just a little over $60,000. I'm not talking about the average income; the average household income is just a little over $60,000. So these cuts to support have only added further stress in a very difficult and challenging time for people.

While the government is talking up its hiring wage subsidy, we know that, just like the original formulation of JobKeeper, the government once again has got it wrong. They have excluded more than 928,000 people over the age of 35 on unemployment benefits. Absolutely the government should be looking after young Australians, but you can't turn your back on those Australians whose only fault is that they're over 35, and that's what they have done. They've decided to give priority to young people. We're all for looking after young people. As a matter of fact, if the government were serious about looking after young people and their future—and basically the future nation—they would not have spent the last seven years simply making it harder and more expensive for young Australians to get to university, and this is what they've done.

This is the same Liberal government that, through relentless attacks on our university sector, has cut $2.2 billion funding from the sector. Let's not forget that it's our universities that we have relied on to provide the many skilled professionals that we now need and are heavily resting on to get us through this pandemic and hopefully have us on the path to developing a suitable vaccination for COVID-19. The Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, in an area I share with the member for Werriwa, is working very much in conjunction with the Liverpool Hospital, with both Western Sydney University and the University of New South Wales. What they are doing is integral to our region and, indeed, the nation. The universities in our electorates have played a very significant role in promoting the development and growth of our community. As Barney Glover, the vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University said when speaking about his university and its relation to Western Sydney:

… the University is part of its fabric. Alongside one another, the community, business and the University have transformed the region. This has changed the narrative from one of disadvantage, to one of promise.

And what does this government do? It puts the vital work of these universities and our tertiary education into jeopardy. We need to support and develop pathways for young people to be ready for the jobs of the future—basically, to be the future of our country. Whether it's in association with the development of Badgerys Creek airport, the aerotropolis, the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research or through the growing needs of our health, it's really clear that our universities not only have been playing but continue to play a very significant role in the areas we have the honour to represent.

Of course, I cannot expect those opposite to fully consider that. After all, they are the same bunch that cut $3 billion out of TAFE and vocational education, something pretty critical if you want skills for the future. And up to the pandemic, want did we see? One hundred and forty thousand less apprentices and trainees. That's not a legacy you want to leave when building a country. Maybe you make some cuts if you want to save money for the next election, but that's not what you do to build a country. And that's why Labor will create the Australian skills guarantee. We've done this before. In that guarantee, we say that one in every 10 workers employed on a worksite receiving major Commonwealth government funding will be an apprentice or a trainee. We did that through the global financial crisis, and that was successful in creating jobs and creating the skills that we needed and are relying on now. We must ensure that Australians have the skills that they need to get the good jobs and that employers have access to well-skilled, well-trained employees. And that, in turn, will stimulate investment in the future.

I would have thought it was common ground that an investment in education is an investment in our future. It's an investment in our nation's prosperity. I've seen what it means for people, for families, in my electorate, and I know their view about education. I have one of the most multicultural communities in the country, and many of those in my community are refugees. They see education as a pathway to change their lives for the better. They see it as a vehicle of opportunity, and that's the way we should see it too.

There was nothing in the budget for families struggling with the cost of child care. We have some of the highest childcare costs in the world. Unfortunately this has resulted in many families now having to choose working for nothing or staying at home, with recent research showing that at least 100,000 families are being locked out of the system because they simply can't afford the cost. This has created a disincentive for the second income earner. On most occasions, that is the woman. The mothers out there are very, very important, but we do actually need people seeking full-time work. We need it for the productivity and the economic growth they deliver to the country. We should not be going out of our way to make it harder for them. This is not only making it harder for families; it's not actually delivering for the nation either.

Why is it that we have a government that has taken such a dim view when dealing with the disability and aged-care sector, two demographics which are overrepresented in my community, mainly because mine is not a wealthy community? In the words of the Treasurer, talking about the budget and the NDIS:

Funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is guaranteed. The Australian Government is providing a further $3.9 billion to the NDIS. This extra funding ensures Australians eligible for the NDIS have access to the supports they need now and into the future.

I would have said, 'Hear, hear,' except I remember what they did in the last budget. In the last budget, the government took $4.6 billion out of the NDIS, not because it wasn't needed by people with special needs and disabilities but to prop up the budget. Talk about rubbery figures!

This pandemic has also exposed the vulnerability of the aged-care sector, where regrettably now more than 680 people have tragically died due to the coronavirus. Despite the royal commission describing the situation facing aged care in the one-word title of its interim report, Neglect, there is nothing in this budget to address the neglect in residential aged care, and the government are simply awaiting the outcomes of the royal commission—a royal commission, by the way, that they were forced into, kicking and screaming.

The other area that the government have failed to invest in is social housing, which we know can be a powerhouse for lifting economic growth and creating jobs. We know this because this is where Labor invested money during the global financial crisis, and we were one of the few countries that came out of that relatively unscathed. The housing crisis has been building for years under this government. While homelessness and housing instability are a very real problem across the country, the situation is certainly dire in my electorate, where there is an overrepresentation of disadvantage, notably where we have a higher refugee population. It is no wonder that my electorate, Fowler, was top for rental stress according to research by the University of New South Wales, which showed that 44 per cent of households in my electorate are living with rental stress.

Australia needs a plan to get through this recession, a vision for the future. We need a government willing not only to protect the community in this pandemic but also to seize the opportunity to rebuild our economy for the future. All we've got from those opposite is $1 trillion of debt and little to show for it—no vision, no infrastructure projects and no reform.

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