Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Extension of Coronavirus Support) Bill 2020. People in this place, at least on this side, are going to be very, very emotional and passionate in their contributions on this bill and the amendment that Labor has moved, because it is an emotional topic. We're talking about people. We're talking about Australians who are struggling and who have been struggling. We're talking about the lack of empathy, the lack of care, the lack of regard, frankly, from the government benches to that struggle. So people will be emotive and emotional. They will be passionate in their contributions, and I think it's because there is a degree of care for Australians who are suffering and for the constituents in our electorates we speak to who have been struggling and who will struggle on JobSeeker on $40 a day.

There are 160,000 people who are expected to lose their jobs, and there are 1.4 million Australians on JobSeeker currently. The previous speakers have talked about the missed opportunity to deliver certainty for these Australians with respect to delivering a permanent increase to JobSeeker and extending JobSeeker, and on both fronts the government has failed. We have consistently called for this increase for a number of years now, even before the pandemic struck, because we understood, and continue to understand, the need. But, of course, it fell on deaf ears on the government benches. And, if they have their way, the rate will return to $40 a day—$40 a day puts people into poverty; $40 a day forces people to skip meals; and $40 a day will take our economic recovery backwards, put a brake on it.

I've said this before: the people in my community who are on JobSeeker or Newstart are not saving that money in a sock under their bed. They're not buying shares with it. They're not going out on the piss. They're not going out gambling.

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