Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today, the first day back in parliament for 2021, was important because it was an opportunity for the government to tell us what their future plans are for creating jobs. We've had the health crisis of 2020, and today was the day to define the kind of Australia that we want. Part of that is what the jobs of the future will be and how we will get people back into employment, especially those two million people in this country who today find themselves without a job, or the ones who are underemployed and want to work more but cannot find that extra work. So this year there will be a clear choice for Australians, a clear choice between a government that cares more about protecting its own jobs and the Prime Minister's job or one that wants to ensure Australians have a fulfilling and reliable future of work.

This government is all about slogans and marketing, instead of believing in actions. When you think about the future of the government and their actions, you just need to look at their record, what they've done since they have been in government. We've seen a decline in manufacturing. People have lost their jobs; industries have gone out of business; particular products that we made here in Australia, with Australian workers, have just disappeared. You don't have to look too far. Just look at South Australia, my own home state, where we had an automobile industry, GMH, that created hundreds and hundreds of jobs. It put food on the table for thousands of people over the years. We don't have that industry anymore. Why don't we have that industry anymore? Because those opposite didn't give two hoots about it. We saw the automobile industry and GMH goaded out of Australia. The Treasurer of the time, Mr Hockey, made that absolutely disgraceful speech in this place. Two days later, GMH announced that they were leaving Australia. We know for every assembly-line job that exists another 30-odd jobs are created. In fact, the car industry has been subsidised by governments all around the world because they know that it economically benefits the nation. The government turned its back on the car industry. It's turned its back on manufacturing. It is also losing those highly skilled, experienced workers we once had. Many are still unemployed today regardless of what programs the government put in place.

The government announces a lot, but the outcomes speak for themselves. For example, the government announced that it would decide in 2019 the long-term location for the full-cycle docking of the Collins class submarines. Well, it's 2021 and we're still waiting. There are close to 900 people employed at the Australian Submarine Corporation in Osborne in South Australia. They are 900 people who spent Christmas and the holiday period very uncertain about how long they will have jobs. We have an aged-care system which is broken and has left our oldest Australians exposed to the coronavirus. The home-care waiting list just gets longer and longer. We saw the debacle, and we're still seeing it, of the COVID-safe app. There was great fanfare, great marketing, great advertising on TV, but how effective has it been? I believe there have been only 17 cases confirmed by the app, although it cost the Australian taxpayer $70 million, including advertising and marketing for those opposite to prop up their own jobs.

The government has announced 22 failed energy policies whilst they've been in for the last eight years, and instead of creating jobs in renewables for the future they've created nothing but uncertainty for businesses that want to invest in renewables. What does that do? It leaves players out of the market, and energy prices have skyrocketed, up to 20 per cent in some cases. They've gone up in the last eight years since this government has been in power. This government and the Prime Minister talk about jobs, but there are two million Australians who are looking for work in the country right now, not to mention the number of people, as I said earlier, who are underemployed, and wages growth is at the lowest it's ever been in the history of this nation. In fact, they're going backwards under this government, instead of the other way. This is the government's track record, with wages going backwards. And what did they have to offer just before we left parliament? An industrial relations bill that's going to cut wages. It's going to cut wages, because it's in their DNA. (Time expired)

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