Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Skills) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Extension of Coronavirus Support) Bill 2020 and on the amendment moved by the wonderful member for Barton, who continues to push the Morrison government for a proper safety net which actually catches people when they need it—a safety net which doesn't let people fall through the cracks, which is why we are so disappointed in this bill. It is a missed opportunity for the government to deliver a permanent increase to the base rate of unemployment support—to lift it from being punitive, poverty inducing and a barrier to getting one's life back on track—and that is why Labor has moved an amendment to call on the government to permanently increase the base rate of the JobSeeker payment and not cut the coronavirus supplement at Christmas, of all times.

There are many beneficial elements to this bill, including continuing the coronavirus supplement for youth allowance recipients after December as well as the increase to income-free areas, taper rates and partner income tests that have been introduced as part of the pandemic. However, this bill puts in black and white the government's cruel plan to revert to pre-pandemic levels of unemployment support from March 2021. It will revert JobSeeker back to the $40-a-day rate. This is unnecessary and cruel.

In the wake of this pandemic, the budget was an opportunity for the government to deliver lasting structural change for Australians needing help while boosting businesses and jobs, and they've missed that opportunity. Labor won't stand for it. We know people are doing it tough. There are 1.8 million Australians who will be relying on JobSeeker by Christmas. In my electorate of Cooper, close to 12,000 people right now are relying on JobSeeker just to survive. There are local folk who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves without a job. Some are people, quite frankly, who could have kept a job during the pandemic had the government extended JobKeeper to their industries, like the workers laid off from La Trobe University; like many casual workers; like workers in the arts and entertainment industry, of whom there are many in my electorate; and, of course, like so many women.

I was contacted by a constituent called Neil just recently. Neil is 53 years old. He and his wife, between them, have 35 years experience of working in the university research sector. Because JobKeeper was not extended to their sector they have both lost their jobs. They have two small children. They are not eligible, unfortunately, for JobSeeker, because they are finally at a stage in their lives—because it's very difficult in the university sector and it's very precarious, insecure work where you move from contract to contract; very few people have permanent tenure—in which they have saved enough money to put a deposit on a house. Unfortunately for them, they lost their jobs because there was no JobMaker, and they are not eligible for JobSeeker because of that small nest egg. He is 53 years old. He fears he will not be able to get another job. The JobMaker scheme, of course, as we know, is an incentive for people to employ people under 35. Neil is 53. He feels desperate, he feels let down and he feels alone.

Everybody knows that it would be unthinkable to push the JobSeeker payment back to pre-pandemic levels: $40 a day is impossible to live on. It would be an act beyond forgiveness and definitely beyond the boundaries of responsible government. Constituents have told me that the extra money means being able to live without anxiety, being able to treat the kids to a new book or a new pair of shoes—let alone have a decent meal or even a meal out. One single mum told me it has meant she's been able to finally focus on setting up her own business. The increased JobSeeker, along with the short period of time when she had access to free child care, meant that she was able to sit at her desk and start that business from scratch, finally having the time to give it the attention it deserves. Imagine that: assisting someone to actually make their own way—making sure that people can eat, be healthy, be well dressed and be mentally well and ready to go out and find work and to actually stand on their own two feet. God forbid that any government would want to help people do that!

When it comes to unemployed people, the Prime Minister and his government are only interested in chasing illegal and immoral robodebts, driving people further into poverty and desperation. The Prime Minister has often tried to call on the long bow of Australian values, but they do not know the true meaning of Australian values, and it makes me furious when they pretend they do. Their values are all about dog eat dog, or kick people when they're down. If you're poor, if you're sick, if you need an education, if you're unemployed, if you're young, if you're old, if you're a woman or if you're from a migrant background, then, bad luck: you're on your own.

The Treasurer let the cat out of the bag when he said he drew on Thatcher and Reagan for inspiration. The idea that governments should step aside and let markets rip is the core of his values. Decades of Thatcherism and Reaganomics have created the inequality and insecurity we face today. Wealth didn't trickle down to the masses; it flowed all the way into the deep, deep pockets of a very privileged few. 'Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps,' they say. There is one job for every eight jobseekers out there right now—a statistic that in reality is much worse given the number of employed people who are actually looking for more jobs to get by. For all of those people, the situation is dire. There just aren't enough jobs. Even if you pulled yourself up by your blooming bootstraps there still wouldn't be enough jobs. As we've pointed out in this House over and over again, this country was going downhill long before the pandemic. With insecure work, record low wages growth and rampant underemployment, this government was overseeing the weakest growth since the global financial crisis.

Let's talk about what's missing in this bill. It's jobs. We have to tackle the casualised and increasingly insecure labour market to deliver a generation of job creation and record low unemployment. The last people willing to listen to about how we need to do that are Thatcher and Reagan fans. Rather, we can turn to our own history for a blueprint of how to do it. After the Second World War, the Chifley government implemented a full employment policy, outlined in a white paper written by HC 'Nugget' Coombs. It was a tangible plan to realise the potential of all Australian workers. It begins with the simple recognition that the people of Australia will demand and are entitled to expect full employment. It places the responsibility for delivering that full employment squarely upon the government's shoulders. It committed the government to an economic framework that ensured that everyone who wanted a job could get one, and at the same time it allowed our country to welcome two million migrants from postwar Europe into the economy.

That's fanciful, I hear you and many of the younger generation say. But it was a policy that prevailed in this country for some 30 years. Even successive Liberal governments maintained it, keeping unemployment at or below two per cent. It meant pulling policy levers to get people employed, like co-investment in the automobile industry or direct government employment in utilities and the Public Service, through apprenticeships, traineeships and cadetships and through massive public works programs and smaller ones at a local government level. It's not fanciful, and with political will and acknowledgement of the failures of the neoliberal approach that has not created the resilient economy that we need, we could achieve it again. I see a sustainable future for our economy with direct investment in revitalising our energy grid, encouraging investment in wind and solar farms, building a hydrogen industry, closing the loop on our own waste management and hiring Indigenous rangers to reconnect us with traditional land use and care.

A full-employment policy could support the workforce we need to regenerate our environments devastated by last summer's bushfires and help mitigate the climate emergency. It could include procurement policies that help our manufacturing sector grow and diversify so we're not reliant on global supply chains for vital products. We could increase the number of permanent workers in the public sector, including in services like Centrelink phone lines. We could clear the visa backlog. It could drive vocational training and entry-level opportunities for good, steady jobs to ensure that the NDIS and the aged-care sectors deliver for the vulnerable people in our community. A full-employment policy with a jobs compact is key to ensuring we have a workforce that is skilled, ready and able to build the infrastructure and the society of the future. Yes, it will cost money, but the return would be immeasurable. The basic economic premise that money in people's pockets is what drives the economy is sound.

We need a plan for jobs, but we need a good, secure safety net to go alongside that. As the member for Barton said, we think that people right across this chamber, in their heart of hearts, know that the base rate of JobSeeker is too low. It will return millions of Australians to poverty. The effects of poverty stay with people for life, and the idea that somehow or other you can just pull your socks up, strap your shoes on and get on with life is not the reality for many people living in this country. We in this place, elected representatives, have a duty to those people. We have a duty of care and we have the capacity to make their lives ones of dignity.

I urge those who sit opposite to consider the amendments to this bill. We can pull people out of poverty. We can give people the opportunity to ready themselves for jobs, to find work, to start their own businesses, to make sure that they actually have some bootstraps to pull up, to make sure that their children have all the opportunities that a secure life can give them: a roof over their heads, plenty of food on the table, a good education and parents that are not absolutely strung out with anxiety because they don't have the income and the means to provide that for their families.

Society needs nothing more than a secure job and a good social safety net that protects you when for a reason out of your own control you find yourself without a job. Mr Deputy Speaker Wallace, I commend these amendments to you and to the government. They need your support.

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