Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) Share this | Hansard source

I want to put on the record for the parliament some of the frustration that the community I represent in Sydney is feeling about this Liberal long lockdown that our community is suffering through at the moment. There's a great deal of frustration and anger in the community that I represent because of the Morrison government's incompetence and failure to show leadership and take responsibility for the problems associated with hotel quarantine and the bungled vaccine rollout.

This long lockdown seems to have no end in sight. Workers have lost jobs, businesses are on the brink, the mental health of many in our community is deteriorating, and children are unable to attend school. The worrying thing is that there appears to be no end in sight, and the government can't get on top of this latest outbreak. Many in the community are questioning the competence of the Morrison and Berejiklian governments to bring this outbreak under control.

In terms of the vaccine rollout, we've seen the government's arrogance and incompetence on full display. Labor warned that this would happen. Last year, when the government did negotiate enough supply deals with manufacturers, Labor warned that this would be the consequence this year with the bungled vaccine rollout. We knew that the commitments that the Prime Minister made to the Australian people would never be met. We all knew that the commitment to vaccinate four million Australians by the end of March would not be met, and the government failed to do that. The Prime Minister said that Australia was at the front of the queue. That's a broken promise, because Australia is actually 78th in the world, with only 15 per cent of our population vaccinated. The anecdotal evidence in the community, unfortunately, reinforces that poor statistic.

Many Australians want to get vaccinated, but, when they try and register through the government's vaccine eligibility website, they can't get an appointment. I want to relay to the parliament an email that I received a couple of weeks ago from a local who lives in Botany, who wrote: 'I'm writing this as I strongly believe that our area is missing out on the Pfizer vaccine. I've tried GPs in Botany, two in Mascot—Eastgardens don't even answer—two in Maroubra, one GP in Green Square last week, and none of them had the Pfizer vaccine. Can you please push Greg Hunt for an answer to when my local GP in Botany will receive the Pfizer vaccine? I wrote to Brad Hazzard asking this, and they passed it on to Greg, and no response. My local GP in Botany doesn't even know when they will receive it.' That's a message from a constituent in the community that I represent about the government's failed vaccine rollout. The government's encouraging people to get vaccinated. That's pretty hard when you can't make an appointment for a booking. We have the government's mixed messages about the appropriate vaccine, which have created a lot of confusion in the local community and this vaccine hesitancy. The Prime Minister always blames someone else; it's ATAGI's fault or it's the state's fault.

We've got frontline staff in the community that I represent that can't register for a vaccine. The New South Wales government has decided that year 12 students will return to school in less than two weeks, yet many teachers still can't register to get a vaccination. Principals are being given very little guidance about how students are going to return to school safely. We've got teachers unvaccinated and students using public transport who are coming from hotspot areas. It appears that the government, both state and federal, are making this up as they go along, and that is creating a lot of confusion in our community.

I'd like to turn to the economic impacts. This bill provides the Commonwealth with the ability to administer business support payments if a state or territory is unable to administer its own payments or arrangements. The bill also allows the Treasurer to create a program of economic response payments until December 2022 and provides for the tax-free treatment of payments from Commonwealth COVID-19 business support programs. I support all these reforms. But this lockdown has been devastating for many in the small business community and workers, and I don't think the government really understands how their delay in acting has caused so much pain and suffering and downturn for small businesses in our community. Many are saying that the government were too slow to react, that they failed to appreciate the nature of this downturn and that they can't give business any certainty or a way and a plan out of this current lockdown.

Over the past few weeks I've spoken to many small businesses in our community. Some have just given up. They've closed their doors. Almost all of them are struggling, and many have laid off staff. In those conversations with small businesses, many of them are telling me that this lockdown is different to the one that occurred in 2020-21, and the principal reason for that is that on this occasion there's no JobKeeper from the government to support their businesses. The business support they were all hoping for simply hasn't been there, and because of that they couldn't keep their staff on. Businesses that have been able to continue to trade are also saying that, compared with 2020-21, they're facing a downturn, because there's no discretionary spending in the community due to the lack of JobKeeper support payments.

The government reluctantly increased the COVID-19 Disaster Payment after I and many Labor MPs had relayed the stories of what was going on in the local community. But they did this reluctantly and begrudgingly, with no understanding of the suffering for small businesses. In the end, it represented a lack of leadership from the government about their understanding of small business and about taking action quickly to provide that support for jobs and small businesses in our community. There are still people who are falling through the cracks. This week I received a phone call from the mother of a young apprentice hairdresser who started her apprenticeship earlier this year and has been working in a salon in the local community here. Obviously the salon has had to close, and that apprentice has been stood down without any work. She's gone from earning $850 a fortnight to earning nothing, because the government's COVID-19 Disaster Payment does not apply to workers under the age of 17 years. There are many young working apprentices throughout this country who deserve the support of this government, but the government has failed them. I think it goes to the fact that, when it comes to putting these packages together, this government doesn't think about workers. They don't think about apprentices and workers who need their support. They start from the basis of thinking of the owners of the business, and that is wrong.

In the aviation sector we're seeing troubling times once again. Sydney airport is the biggest employer in the community I represent, and it is once again on its knees, and all the businesses associated with the airport are struggling. Already 10,000 jobs have been lost in the aviation sector in Australia, and today Qantas announced that a further 2½ thousand staff will be stood down for a period of two months. The government's had 18 months to come up with a plan for the survival and recovery of the Australian aviation sector, but instead they've sat on their hands. They could have used the billions of dollars in support that they offered to major airlines to secure the jobs of workers but have chosen not to do so.

We saw yesterday that the government came up with what was essentially a stopgap announcement for the industry, and typically in this shambolic approach it looks to exclude ground-handling staff and airport staff, who are a crucial and important part of the aviation sector. Initially, only 50 per cent of pilots and cabin crew from airlines will be eligible for the payment, provided they can prove revenue was down at least 30 per cent. Again, we've got a group of workers and employees that are falling through the cracks, because, when it comes to putting these packages together, the government doesn't think of workers. The government is not on the side of workers when it comes to government support such as this.

In conclusion, the Morrison government have failed the people of Australia in their response to COVID-19, particularly the people of Sydney related to this latest lockdown. Their failings on quarantine and on the vaccine rollout have been writ large during this latest lockdown. Our economy is losing billions of dollars per week, jobs have been lost and are being lost, businesses are closing and struggling to survive, the mental health of many in our community is deteriorating and our children aren't attending school at the moment. Australia is in a heavy and deep funk at the moment because of the Morrison government's incompetence. The Australian people deserve better than this failed and incompetent Morrison government.

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