Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution to the debate on the Appropriation Bill (No.3) 2020-2021 and the related bills. It has been six months since the budget and it is becoming clearer that the title of the 'greatest economic managers' is just another empty label which this government crowns itself. The Morrison government lauds itself for a slight improvement in the economy, however, we have a trillion dollars in debt. The government has no plan to tackle the jobs crisis billed for the future or help struggling families and small businesses. We also have a continuing crisis in aged care that is continually neglected. On top of that we have persistent growth in inequality. The Morrison government's so-called improvements will be short lived as their budget has done little to address many of the underlying issues Australia faces.

Budgets are about making choices. They are about the direction that families, businesses, corporations and the government will choose. Unfortunately this government made the deliberate choice to deliver little in the long term for the people of Werriwa and Australia as a whole. What the pandemic exposed is that no matter what, big business will benefit from the government's plans. According to this government when times are good the top gets taxpayer funded handouts. When times are bad we continue to do the same. In December the combined worth of Australian billionaires was 52.2 per cent higher than exactly a year before. This reminds us of the stark inequality in Australia. We should focus government efforts on changing it.

JobKeeper is a good example of the mishandling of huge budget expenses, as well as exposing the inequality of top-down economics. In theory JobKeeper provides money to businesses so they can avoid closing. It keeps relationships with their staff. However, as time passed the more we learned about the mishandling of this scheme. Big businesses profited from JobKeeper. The Accent Group received $45 million, yet its 2020 profits were up 40 per cent. The group paid its CEO a $1 million-plus bonus. Shareholders received $65 million in dividends and $11 million of that went overseas to a Monaco billionaire. Bentley dealer Autosports received $2 million in JobKeeper and doubled its profit. Investment bank Moelis got $3 million in JobKeeper and paid $4 million in executive bonuses. Unfortunately, there are many others—like Crown Perth, Empired, Janison and MaxiTRANS—who are profiting from Australia's pain. A public backlash has led to a few companies returning the JobKeeper money. The problem is that the government isn't asking corporations to pay back their undeserved handout. The Treasurer had the ability to make the scheme do what it was intended to do: save the jobs of workers and prepare for the importance of the economy this year. But, given these examples, it is not how it's worked.

In comparison, successive coalition governments inflicted pain and anguish on already disadvantaged Australians with the inexcusable robodebt scheme—driving some Australians to suicide—to illegally take back money from the most vulnerable of Australians. These debts were often levied on the basis that you had to prove the government wrong. But when taxpayer money unfairly aids corporate bonuses the response from the government is: 'This is how it should work.' How can it be that an overseas billionaire is provided more care than a working Australian? Although difficult to comprehend, this is the situation in Australia at the moment with this government at the helm. There are thousands of unemployed Australians and people in sectors such as tourism and manufacturing that desperately need government support—like travel agents in my electorate, who face no future and have not been helped. They are the people who will get our economy going again. They're the people who need JobKeeper to continue after the end of this month.

It is troubling that the inequality in Australia is higher than it was a generation ago—and there's no pandemic defence the government can use to hide that fact. That's why it's critical to reiterate that budgets are more than just numbers; they are priorities and a vision for the people for the future. Peoples' livelihoods are at stake. Their bottom line doesn't mean they can't invest next month; it means they can't feed their family. The Mid-Year Economic Fiscal Outlook forecast a $198 billion deficit this financial year, with $456 billion of cumulative deficits over the forward estimates.

The budget will be in deficit for the next decade, which is understandable given the circumstances we face. The issue lies in where these funds are going and whether the average Australian is going to benefit from it in the long term. This government has chosen a short-term temporary fix that will come back to haunt us. The truth is that those struggling before the pandemic will also have a tough 2021. I also fear that, beyond 2021, there will be nothing to alleviate the struggle of many Australians. A government that chooses short-term gains is not on the side of working families—for example, the JobMaker hiring credit that the government announced in the budget. Getting a job over the age of 35 was already difficult, and for those over 60 it is near impossible. I have heard from many constituents aged over 60 who have unexpectedly lost their jobs during the pandemic. They have had to use their nest egg before they could access income support; but the prospect of gaining employment, no matter how many jobs they apply for, is next to impossible. There must be safeguards for all Australians. This measure is intended to assist. However, it's merely short-term—and it's clear in the numbers. Almost every age group saw an increase in unemployment or insecure work over the year. A total of 940,000 people were unemployed in January 2021. That rose from 875,000 in December 2020. Over 65,000 Australians received unemployment as their Christmas present. We are back to mid-pandemic levels of unemployment. And what do we have to show for it? The casualisation of the work force, giving more power to employers and fewer rights to the employee. Again, it is a temporary fix for the economy and the employer, but there is no delivery of long-term, secure jobs.

The fact is that the budget did not have a plan for good, secure jobs and fair pay and conditions. Job security, better pay and improving fairness in industrial relations is core to Labor policy. It is good for the economy, and people have the confidence to spend. By no means are you casual if you do the same shift continually for more than a year. For Australia to recover from the COVID recession we need secure jobs and incomes. We need the confidence to spend money and stimulate the economy. Secure employment, fair wages and good conditions are the foundations of a strong economy. But, as I said earlier, the budget is not just about numbers; it's about people.

The people in the aged-care sector are in dire need of support. The government can announce home-care packages but they don't seem to be able to deliver them. Services just aren't there for people in certain areas, such as Green Valley in my electorate. There aren't enough and, in some cases, there are no services for people who want simple tasks done, like lawn mowing or house cleaning. I can't tell you how many constituents have contacted my office saying that they have been approved for a package but that they can't even join a waiting list because those people just don't exist to help them.

Many people in this place know someone or have family members in the aged-care system. We also know how much the system is failing. This includes the 6,000 younger people with a disability that are currently in residential aged care. What we want for them is a system that works and provides the best possible care. A young person in an aged-care facility is just not right. Unfortunately, as is clear from the royal commission into aged care, it is in crisis. The government provides more than 75 per cent of the funding for aged care and is 100 per cent responsible for quality and safeguards, and yet it's this government that cut funding by $1.7 billion and, as a result, services have been capped and resources strangled.

Some private operators behave like profiteers, resulting in substandard food and care for our most vulnerable. According to the latest population trends, 38.3 per cent of Australian men and 55.4 per cent of women will need support from the aged-care system, especially residential aged care, and they're going to stay there for two to three years. Now is the time to make sure their stay is what they deserve. We know that many of the hardworking and caring staff in the aged-care services are doing a wonderful and very difficult job with the resources they have. But, as the royal commission has highlighted, the standard we accept should be much better across the sector.

After eight years of the Morrison government, it's time that we accept a higher standard for our older Australians. There must be structural change in the way aged care is managed, rather than allowing private companies to profit on the sector's depression. If it means using the government's responsibility for aged care to ensure that the funding is efficiently used and benefits the whole sector, then so be it. In aged care and social housing, these investments will benefit Australia in the long term.

Labor has also put forward a plan to invest in our tradies, creating thousands of jobs for brickies, electricians and carpenters. We saw during the GFC that every dollar spent in construction will flow through to the rest of the economy several times over. Fast tracking urgent repairs in social housing would not only create secure jobs but also secure housing for those who most need it. There is an urgent crisis in housing and homelessness that the government continues to ignore. Shamefully, the budget does not include a single dollar for social housing, while 100,000 homes need urgent repair and maintenance. In my electorate there is upwards of a 20-year wait for support, like social housing.

Having a policy will generate work for the local tradies and fix the homes that need to be fixed. It's grassroots economics. Creating a fair and equitable baseline of living is what Australia is all about. There's no such thing as: 'If you're good at your job, you'll get a job', 'Pull yourself up by your bootstraps', or 'If you have a go, you'll get a go.' Australia's working life can't be described by catchphrases like it is a 1980 sitcom. These are real people and they have real needs. Not everybody can flick a switch and turn their life around. They need support. The pandemic exposed this when so many people lost their jobs and income. It exposed how many people were on the edge, and the government has failed these Australians. This budget was an opportunity to pull us out of our first recession in 30 years—the worst downturn in close to a century. They even had a template on how to manage a global recession from the Rudd government.

Yet, I am sad to say, it seems this government chose their own template of partisan politics and short-term gain. The deficit was not unprecedented and neither was the pandemic months before lockdown. This government chose to treat it lightly until the last second, and we're going to pay for it now and into the future. The budget was an opportunity to deliver on creating secure jobs and future proofed training to ensure quality child care and aged care, to rebuild our manufacturing sector and to add power to our recovery with clean energy. But it seems we are left with giving hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends to the top and job losses at the bottom. The government is failing the people it should be protecting most.

See this speech in context