Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

This is the eighth budget to be delivered by a tired eight-year government. At the next election the coalition will be asking for 12 years in office, which is more than Prime Minister Howard had. Yet they've handed down another budget with no vision for our country. This is not a budget from a government that's trying to build back better after the pandemic. This is not a budget from an ambitious government that is trying to leave our country better off after the privilege of being in office for eight years. It is a poor attempt by the government to buy a few votes and solve a few of their political problems. Whilst spending $100 billion and racking up $1 trillion of debt, this government has quite miraculously managed not to fulfil two of its most important jobs: establishing a safe quarantine system and vaccinating our population. In the midst of this current crisis, the Prime Minister's primary job is to keep Australians safe and get our country through to the other side of this pandemic, which is exactly why quarantine and vaccine rollout should be firmly at the top of the Prime Minister's to-do list.

Australians have done more than their fair share of heavy lifting during the COVID pandemic. They've obeyed restrictions, closed their businesses, stayed home and worked and lost pay, missed important life events, balanced working from home with looking after children, stayed separate from their loved ones, and, of course, much more. Australians have held up their end of the bargain. As a result, Australia has performed incredibly well, in terms of the health outcomes. But make no mistake: that is thanks to the hard work of the Australian people. But it's now time for this federal government to uphold their end of the deal, which is quarantine and vaccinations. No matter how much hard work and sacrifice is made by the Australian people, we will not emerge from the other side of the COVID-19 crisis without a successful quarantine system and vaccination program. Both are important tickets out of this pandemic. Yet this government has failed dismally on both fronts.

Since last year, when Jane Halton handed down her review, it has been clear what must be done to make our quarantine system fit for purpose. There are integral measures that, shockingly, this government still does not have in place, like strong standards around ventilation and PPE. But what I believe is its biggest failure is this government's refusal to build dedicated, fit-for-purpose, national quarantine facilities. Hotel quarantine in the heart of our CBDs has been important, but it was never meant to be permanent. It was a short-term option, not a long-term option. Hotels are built for tourism. They're not built to contain contagious, deadly viruses. We've seen of the consequences, with COVID managing to escape hotel quarantine time and time again. It is unacceptable—and, frankly, unforgivable—that in this budget the government has not included any new money for new quarantine facilities.

This budget also does nothing to fix the mess that the Prime Minister has made when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations. We are not even in the top 100 nations in the world, in terms of vaccine doses per head of population. Only two per cent of our population is fully vaccinated. In the United States, they've just passed 50 per cent. The rollout has been bungled from the get-go. The government was, true to form, focused on their announcements and the headlines. 'The eagle has landed,' the health minister said. Of course, they put the Liberal Party logo, not the Australian government logo, on the Facebook ads and made bold claims, such as the claim that four million Australians would be vaccinated at the end of March.

But it became clear very quickly that we were not at the front of the queue, that the four million target would not be reached and that, indeed, the eagle had not landed. As well as initial supply issues, the government, against many warnings, put their eggs in only two baskets: Pfizer and AstraZeneca—and there was very little in the Pfizer basket, may I add. This was despite the international recommendation to put your eggs in five or six baskets, which meant that the potential issues that emerged for the under-50s with the AstraZeneca vaccine resulted in further slowing. They like to make the excuse that it is the health advice that has slowed this down. Actually, if the government had done its job and had spread its risk, we would not be in this position. The UK didn't miss a beat when they changed their vaccination rollout. In one week they moved to: under 30s will not get AstraZeneca; under 30s will get Pfizer. They did it seamlessly. They did not miss a beat. But of course, once again, through this government's incompetence we have been flat-footed.

The administration of the rollout has been bungled too. I've heard countless reports from constituents who want the vaccine but haven't been able to find it. They've been told to call a number. The mobile number rings out. They can't book it online. There are GPs who are confused about how to obtain the vaccinations and, of course, how to work with the population. This has been nothing short of a debacle and a failure on every front.

We are now seeing the consequence play out in Melbourne. My heart goes out to all those in Victoria who have already sacrificed so much over the last 15 months, who have kept our whole country safe, and are now facing yet another outbreak. But let's be absolutely clear, if we had seen the vaccine rollout and quarantine as essential issues to be dealt with, not as the Prime Minister said, 'We'll just go slow—slow and steady with the vaccine rollout'—these are the sorts of things that happen when you don't do your job. I really am incredibly frustrated about this government's ducking and weaving when it comes to blaming others for this. It is always someone else's problem. Indeed, the health minister was interjecting yesterday: 'The Northern Territory wants to take over quarantine'. Why should we run quarantine? They probably don't have a lot of confidence in the Commonwealth based on this vaccine rollout.

It's not only the lockdowns, the ongoing restrictions also have consequences for businesses. I am constantly speaking to businesses in my electorate who will not be able to fully recover until all COVID restrictions are lifted. It's heartbreaking to speak to small business owners who, through absolutely no fault of their own, are still suffering the severe economic downturn because of COVID restrictions. Examples I've given a number of times in this place are party and event based businesses. This is an industry that simply cannot properly recover until restrictions on density are fully lifted and Australians can confidently recommence hosting large parties and events.

Another example is the tourism industry. I recently held a tourism forum in my electorate and heard firsthand the impact that restrictions are having on industry. I also heard from Murray, who operates a the Fleurieu Pantry in Port Noarlunga, about the impact that ongoing density restrictions are having on his business, but in particular on the numbers of staff that he can employ. He said he directly employs fewer people because of the density requirements. Bob and Julie own a tourism business at Port Noarlunga and they told me that they are still giving their tenant a concessional rental rate because they cannot fully operate at full capacity. These restrictions are having an impact on the bottom line of many businesses. It has been mooted in South Australia that until we get to 80 per cent vaccination rates then density requirements will not change. So these businesses will have to wait while the Prime Minister is on his go-slow. The AHA's head Ian Horne said publicans were told last year that QR codes would be the silver bullet. But full capacity is now not being considered and will be considered on vaccination levels. This is really significant for many businesses.

This budget also manages to continue to leave behind many working Australians. This government has presided over record low wage growth. Instead of putting forward a plan in this budget to overcome the worst wages growth in history, the government has delivered real wage cuts. We've had wage stagnation. This budget plainly predicts a cut in real wages over the next four years. But not only does this budget predict wages cuts, we are seeing the essentials go up. We even hear this from the government, the reason why inflation is going to be so high in the predictions is the cost of child care. We know child care is expensive. We've been telling the government that the system that they introduced in 2018 has failed dismally. We've been telling them over and over again. Despite that, we have heard the government dismiss that. We all know that, to fix a political problem, they did throw some money at childcare in this budget. But it does fall way short of what is needed and what Labor's plan is to combat the rising cost of child care. It also falls well short of what our economy needs to boost workforce participation, which, I might say, in this budget is predicted to go down. So that is one holy failure of their childcare policy and their spending. The levels of workforce participation are going to go down because fewer people are even bothering to look for a job.

The government spent the last few years denying that there was anything wrong with the childcare system that the Prime Minister himself designed. They dismissed Labor's bold plan for cheaper child care—a structural change that would boost workforce participation. But Australian families—and this is the truth—are being hit with some of the highest out-of-pocket childcare costs in the world. We know that there are close to 100,000 families who are locked out of the system because of child care.

The government spent a lot of time making sure they got their announcement right. They wanted to make as many families as possible think that they were going to be better off under their announcement. But, as usual with this government, you always have to read the fine print. This policy, firstly, does nothing for families that have one child in child care. There's nothing—zero fee relief. It is predicted 75 per cent of all families using the system will get nothing and no acknowledgement around the subsidy. The reality is that 86 per cent of families—that's 860,000 families—with children under six, including one or two children, are better off under Labor's policy compared to the Morrison government's plan. Every single family with one child under the age of five with a combined family income of less than $530,000 will receive absolutely no lift in their childcare subsidy under the Liberals but will under Labor's plan. The vast majority of families with a combined family income between $69,000 and $174,000 with two children in child care will be better off under Labor's plan. Any extra support the Liberals do provide to families with two children will be temporary, as it will be ripped away as soon as the oldest child goes to school because it does not apply to after-school-hours care, whereas Labor's policy also improves the level of subsidy for after-school-hours care. Parents struggle with the cost of both child care and after-school-hours care, but the government has ignored that, because this was a quick fix.

In contrast, Labor's boost will support every child for the entire time that they are in child care. Under our plan, one million families would be better off than they are now—four times as many as under the Liberals' plan. Ninety-seven per cent of families will be better off or equal under Labor's plan. That's because our plan helps more families for longer. It will also have a larger economic dividend—a boost to GDP three times bigger than the Liberal Party's plan. Our plan will provide more for families for longer, will result in a boost to GDP—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:24 to 11:36

So the truth of the matter is that, when you compare the two childcare policies, we've got one from the Liberal Party that is a political fix, a con job, and one that delivers long-term, sustainable economic growth to help Australian working families. The Liberal Party stopped talking about child care the day after the budget. They don't want to talk about it, because they know more Australian families would be better off under Labor's plan. They know that Labor's plan would deliver more economic growth. They know that Labor's plan is structural reform, not a political fix job. We are committed to talking about this to the Australian people each and every day, because Labor is offering a better long-term solution than the Liberal political fix.

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