Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll begin today by saying that it is good to be able to be back in this chamber and talking in this chamber. But, while I've been participating remotely in debate in this place, it's been clear to me that this government has had very little idea about what is actually going on in our communities during this pandemic and this recession. All of the families in our communities are facing vastly different circumstances: the people who have lost their jobs, the people who are getting less work than they used to and the people who have picked up caring responsibilities in a way they never have before. Their lives have changed. All we hear from this government in this place is smug, self-satisfied rhetoric about how they've done all they can and people have got it better it than others and they should just be happy with that.

That's just not the reality of what's going on out there. Even during the height of this pandemic, this government was already leaving people behind. I'm speaking of people like the chef at one of my RSLs who was left wondering how he was going to support his family through this pandemic because being from New Zealand made him ineligible for JobKeeper. Then there are the hundreds and hundreds of workers at La Trobe University who have been ineligible for JobKeeper throughout this crisis, and I was amazed to hear the relevant minister talk in question time about how this government had stood up for universities when they deliberately changed the legislation to exclude them from JobKeeper. And, of course, there are the childcare workers who were cut off from JobKeeper at the time when, in my electorate, centres were shutting down. I cannot tell you how many distressed childcare workers and their families I heard from who were told: 'There's no money and there are no shifts. You'll have to just tough it out.' That was the response from this government at the height of the pandemic.

Now we have a job creation scheme which actually leaves workers at risk. I've been contacted by unemployed workers in my electorate who are already worried about what this scheme means for them. If they're not eligible for this scheme, what's left to them? As I said in question time, they've already seen the job ads that specify criteria that preferably make employees eligible for the JobMaker hiring credit scheme. What a disincentive to apply for work. What a disincentive to try and get back out there in this tough job market when, in fact, you are seeing ads that say, 'We'd prefer you not to even apply'.

I raised this today during question time. The Prime Minister wouldn't look at me when I raised it. He wouldn't answer my question. In fact, the Attorney-General gave me some rhetoric which doesn't seem to stand up, because we know from evidence from the relevant Senate inquiry that Treasury itself said that exemptions in the Age Discrimination Act could protect employers who tell older workers not to apply for jobs they intend to create with JobMaker. So we know that workers who have been made unemployed through no fault of their own during this pandemic and during this recession are often the people finding it hardest to re-enter the workforce. Now we know that this government is making it more difficult for them to stay in the workforce. They're putting more people at risk of losing their jobs and of losing hours because of a poorly designed scheme.

As we've heard from my fellow members today, Labor has always supported wage subsidies in times of economic difficulty. But, given that we've got nearly one million Australians unemployed and the government itself is predicting a further 160,000 by Christmas, it just makes absolutely no sense that this government will not adopt Labor's sensible amendments to put in place protections for existing workers. Failing to have these protections won't create new jobs. It won't help those people in my electorate who are looking for work. It won't help those people in my electorate who are feeling stressed about what Christmas might hold for them, about how the rest of the year and into next year will pan out for their family. But it will risk existing jobs. So all we are asking is that there's a safeguard for existing workers. If the government is so confident that this scheme is a job maker and not a job taker, surely they can support existing employees. Surely they can see the reality of what is happening in our community—how people are suffering and the fear they're feeling—and respond appropriately. This shouldn't be about politics. It shouldn't be about you taking a stand; it should be about you doing the right thing.

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