Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sometimes, with the greatest respect, the most powerful voices in this place don't come from the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition or ministers or shadow ministers. The most compelling words come from the people we humbly represent. Yesterday I received an email from a bloke in my electorate that upset me quite a bit. I had spoken up for him previously and, like many Australians, the company he works for has been doing it tough over the last few months. He sent me an update on how he's going. I want to give this House an insight into his life right now, because the MPI rightly says we need to focus on the interests of Australians—we should focus on people like him.

Over the last few months, he and his workmates had to go into standdown and couldn't work. I won't read the entirety of the email, but I do want to give you an insight into what he has gone through. He said: 'I've been continuing to work for around eight hours a week over two days. When I inquired how much support I could get with that low amount of work, I was entitled to a massive $12 a fortnight. Finding casual work to fit in with the time I was working was extremely difficult. To support myself and my family, I have been using what's left of my annual leave and my long service leave. I've been using what I was able to withdraw from my super, which is dwindling fast. Since I last wrote to you I was on standdown. After the first three months of standdown it was extended to a further three months and it's continuing on. We're expected to take special leave without pay or come to some agreement of a temporary position of approximately 20 to 24 hours, but the company has since admitted they can't even promise that much to employees.'

This bloke has applied for 50 jobs. He doesn't care what he does. He'll stock shelves, drive trucks or delivery vehicles. He's been for a few interviews but to date has been unsuccessful. He said—and this is what got me: 'I feel my life and work experience and the skills I could bring to a new employer get ignored when they see my age. I'm now 40 and I'm soon to be 41.' He said to me, 'What I would really like to know—if at some stage you could ask him—is what Mr Morrison expects people in my position to do, when we try to do the right thing: paying taxes, being decent citizens, trying to gain meaningful employment. How are we supposed to achieve this when he and his government keep changing the rules and moving the goalposts? I feel like I've been kicked in the guts by Mr Morrison.'

Do you know who he works for? Dnata. That is the firm that was expecting JobKeeper and was denied it. Australian workers, working on Australian soil and paying Australian taxes, were denied support at the moment they needed it. By the way, like many of us, I lobbied the government to put these people back onto JobKeeper and was told: 'Nuh, it can't happen.' It could have been changed at the last minute but we couldn't change their minds. I think of this bloke, Adam from Lethbridge Park, and I wonder what he thinks when he sees the government spend $100 billion extra in the budget. They're going towards a trillion in debt. A bloke like this in the suburbs can't get support—and you've heard what he's going through, Mr Deputy Speaker—but Clive Palmer gets support out of the government to run his private planes.

There's no plan for the aviation sector. There are people wondering when the international borders will open and they can get work again. They can't find other work, and they see all this stuff happening around them. They see Cartier watches in Australia Post. And the people in Australia Post who are worried about their jobs or their take-home pay see the government pay donors for land at 10 times its worth in the deal at Badgerys Creek. They see all the money wasted on sports rorts, with more money spent on sports rorts than on actual manufacturing in this country, and a corporate watchdog who spends hundreds of thousands of dollars for their own tax advice. This is really bad for ordinary Australians. It's shameful that the government couldn't look ordinary people like Adam of Lethbridge Park in the eye when they really wanted their government to be there for them. The government refused, but they are there for all the big people, who can already look after themselves, with some of these rorts that have been going on. It is absolutely shameful. Those on the other side of the House should absolutely hang their heads in shame.

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