Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We're debating Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2020-2021 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2020-2021. Appropriation bills are, of course, the very lifeblood of government. It's important that these bills pass so that the government has money to keep our economy ticking over during a very difficult time. But what has this government been doing? What have those opposite been doing? They have been presiding over a series of scandals and shambles.

One of my constituents, Pamela Trotman, a mental health social worker, recently wrote a letter to the Prime Minister voicing her concerns. I'm not sure if the Prime Minister has read it. His office certainly haven't acknowledged it. But she's urging him to reconsider his decision not to hold an inquiry into the events of 1988 in which it was alleged that Christian Porter raped a teenage colleague. She writes:

Christian Porter and you have both … argued on the importance of upholding the rule of law as a key foundation of a democratic society … however there are other key principles of law which you and Christian Porter appear to have overlooked and in doing so you have both compromised the integrity of the role of Attorney General.

Ms Trotman says that Minister Porter had the opportunity to declare his innocence, but the woman who is making the allegations has not. She writes to the Prime Minister:

What is particularly galling about your actions is your apparent insincerity with respect to ensuring survivor's voices are heard. That insincerity, or was it duplicity, is evidenced in the fact that you made those assertions in support of Christian Porter just five weeks after you stood beside Grace Tame while she delivered her impassioned speech in response to being awarded Australian of the Year. Which 'persona' of you as Prime Minister do we believe?

Ms Trotman writes to the Prime Minister further:

We need leaders, men, and women, who despite the challenges and personal costs, will fight to uphold and protect the very fabric of our civil society … neither he nor you have demonstrated this level of leadership and in so doing have tarnished the integrity of this pivotal role in sustaining Australia as a civil society.

She closes by saying:

Your decision not to hold an inquiry is to silence not only the voice of Christian Porter's accuser but all the other rape victims who struggle to live healthy and rich lives while their perpetrators go unchallenged. That, Sir, is not my idea of a how a civil society should work.

I agree with Ms Trotman. We should not be silencing the voice of victims; we should be amplifying them. This is true of the victims of sexual assault as well as those who have served our nation, and that is why I've been so vocal in my calls for a royal commission into veteran and Defence Force suicides. We've managed to get the government over to the side of overwhelming public opinion. I acknowledge the support we have had from all sides on this issue. But I do note that the Prime Minister still hasn't been able to bring himself to say that there will definitely be a royal commission; he only says that he won't oppose moves towards establishing one. Yesterday in question time the Prime Minister couldn't say there would be a royal commission. On behalf of veterans and families I say: 'Prime Minister why are you delaying confirming that there will be a royal commission into defence and veteran suicides? Why won't you establish that for the nation? I hope you do it today. You've got the opportunity to do it before we go to a break from sittings.'

We know that work is a tremendous lifeline for people and sustains families. But, over the last year, work has been incredibly uncertain for many Australians, who are now facing even more uncertainty. There are only four days left until this lifeline to businesses, especially to small businesses, is cut off. It's going to be disastrous for a lot of those small businesses, including in my electorate of Solomon—Darwin and Palmerston—the northern capital of Australia. Our workers have sacrificed so much during this pandemic and they've paid a very high price. One million people are unemployed and 1. 1 million are underemployed looking for more work or more hours. Some 3.3 million have raided their super account, with many thousands of young people reducing their balances to zero. This will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars upon their retirement.

What Australian workers and businesses need right now is a government that will listen to them and hear their fears, worries and concerns. During this highly unusual period, they are hoping for a helping hand—and I speak for my electorate—to get through to the vaccine rollout, which is slower than anticipated, and to get to the dry season, when the tourists return. That's why Labor first proposed a wage subsidy system—and we understood that this sort of help would be necessary for some time. Now is not the time to lift this support.

But no-one thinks that this payment, JobKeeper, should go on for ever. Economists are estimating that, when the tap gets turned off on Sunday, anywhere between 100,000 and 250,000 Australians will immediately lose their jobs. JobKeeper has been the only thing keeping them afloat. So, whilst this Prime Minister fights for the jobs of his colleagues with serious allegations against them, in four days we are facing a situation where many Australians around this nation, through no fault of their own, will join the unemployment queues. That's mind-boggling.

The temporary rate of JobSeeker has been cut too, so Territorians and people in my electorate won't get much support there. A miserly boost of $3.57 a day from those opposite isn't going to help keep the lights on at home or put food on the table or pay the rent. More than 4,000 Territorians were still on JobKeeper at the end of January, and three-quarters of them live in Darwin in my electorate. So I speak for them when I say it is premature to be pulling this support away—particularly for people connected with the tourism industry because, as we know, the borders remain closed. In my electorate Chris Cleanthous runs a business servicing cruise ships. They normally service 50 to 70 ships a year. They've been doing that for 30 years. It was a very profitable business until COVID-19 hit and the ships stopped coming. Chris and his brother George have already had to lose two-thirds of their staff, dropping from 30 employees to 12. Those 12 are all on JobKeeper and all look to be out of a job from Monday, when JobKeeper goes. Overseas tourism is still a long way from returning to Australia, and we all understand that, so some consideration needs to be given to businesses such as these that have been paying their taxes for so many years. Domestic tourism coming back isn't going to be able to fill that gap for them, so there is a big, real need for targeted support with JobKeeper. We all know there's massive corporations that have been getting JobKeeper whilst making massive profits, whilst giving out executive bonuses and whilst paying out dividends funded by the taxpayers of Australia. Targeted support to small businesses that are still struggling is what's required.

The $1.2 billion tourism package that the government announced two weeks ago initially didn't include the Top End at all, despite our heavy reliance on tourism. How could Darwin be overlooked when Broome was included and when Cairns was included? We have many world-class tourism icons, such as Kakadu. How could they be ignored? It was only added to the list of eligible locations after the fact, when we raised our concerns about it. I acknowledge all those from all sides of politics representing the Northern Territory who raised those concerns, but it hardly sends and encouraging message to tourism businesses in the Top End.

What is the government actually offering to the tens of thousands of tourism and hospitality businesses in the Territory and around the country who are hanging on by a thread? Some of those businesses are going to go to the wall. And yet those opposite, the federal government, refuse to even consider making companies who have made massive profits pay back the JobKeeper they didn't need. In a targeted way, those funds could have kept some of these small businesses afloat.

We want Territorians and, around Australia, Australian workers to be connected to their businesses. David Malone is the CEO of Master Builders Association Northern Territory. Today in the NT News he noted that we are entering what he calls the great unwinding, as those billions are pulled back and the economy returns to being powered by citizens not stimulus. One of the biggest impacts, he says, is the end of the federal government's HomeBuilder incentive and the Northern Territory's BuildBonus scheme. These schemes have helped shore up private investment. David is calling for the creation of a major projects coordinator and an infrastructure commissioner to take charge around investment as stimulus payments ebb. There is, of course, light on the horizon. The NT government has done a great job of considering the longer term future and has been busy shoring up many projects that will give us a stable base for the recovery. These projects include major investments in renewable energy. There is the Sun Cable project, which will result in up to $8 billion being invested in the Territory, which will be home to the largest solar farm and renewable energy system in the world. It will form part of the $22 billion Australian-ASEAN Power Link, for which 1500 jobs will be created during the construction phase from October 2023, with 350 ongoing jobs once operations get going. It will create both job security and energy security, both of which are absolutely essential in the NT and around our country. It will be good for the environment and good for the economy. It means that in six years from now this power link will provide a huge amount of renewable energy for the NT as well as powering a fifth of the energy used by Singapore. It will export one billion per year in solar electricity.

The NT will be a renewable energy powerhouse and will be set to become a green energy manufacturing hub. It could, in fact, be a key cog in a federal renewable energy precinct network, which could support a cluster of manufacturers powered by 100 per cent renewable energy. It could help Australia get on the front foot and capitalise on a growing global demand for carbon zero products. It could position us as a world leader in zero-carbon, sustainable manufacturing.

A proposal from the World Wildlife Fund suggests that 3,000 regional manufacturing jobs in Darwin could double under such a program. That's a big deal for the northern capital of Australia. So there's a bright future ahead of us, especially for the Northern Territory. But many of these fantastic initiatives are still a few years away. We need support to help our local businesses hold on during this very tough time, so that they still exist when the time comes to capitalise on the opportunities ahead. This is not the time to cut JobKeeper. The government must reconsider this.

If it escapes the government's attention, let me make it very clear: like in other regional areas of Australia, in my electorate in Darwin and Palmerston there are many small businesses, including First Nations businesses, whether they be in the travel booking industry or connected to international tourism, that still require this assistance in a targeted way—those exposed to the dramatic decline in those coming from overseas to visit our magnificent Northern Territory. They still need a hand in a targeted way to get through to the vaccine rollout, which those opposite are responsible for. If the vaccine rollout is a lot slower than anticipated, keep JobKeeper going—particularly to those businesses in the tourism industry that are going to struggle or close. Many of them will simply cease to exist. It behoves those opposite to take the concerns of these small businesses and their workers in the Northern Territory seriously. I seek leave to table a letter from Ms Pamela Trotman, one of my constituents, to the Prime Minister, because I have no faith that it has been read.

Leave not granted.

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