Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Once again I rise to talk about this government's absolute failure, this time on wages and the cost of living. I want to say on the record that our public service workers are the best—our nurses, pathologists and health teams; the work our firefighters do; and our amazing teachers and administration workers. There is not one sector in our economy that does not have some form of public sector engagement. If you think about it, to serve the public would have to be one of the most honourable and noble things to do. In the last two years—I know I'm not alone in saying this—people have truly appreciated what serving the public and the community really means, just what it is and the people who do it. Just the other day I joined with public sector workers and the South Coast Labour Council to help launch the groundbreaking report by Associate Professor Martin O'Brien from the University of Wollongong about how important our public sector workers are to our region. Public sector workers spend locally and support our local shops and jobs, and that's something I am happy to support. I will always fight for fair wages and fair pay for the public sector. However, saying thanks doesn't get you another nurse on the ward, though we need more of these workers to do more of the good work. But this government believes it needs to be fiscally responsible. What does that mean? It means this government will thank them but it won't pay them. According to the ACTU, millions of workers in Australia are in some form of non-standard, insecure working arrangements, including 2.3 million casuals. There are over a million so-called independent contracts and over 400,000 fixed-term contracts. Our nation now ranks No. 1 for the highest level of insecure work in the OECD. That is shameful. The Morrison government has made middle Australia more vulnerable, not less, with eight long years of wage stagnation in this country.

All the while, there's the soaring cost of housing, the flow-on effect with the cost of rentals, and the dreadful reality that is next—homelessness. Within Gilmore, I'm on the Shoalhaven Homelessness Taskforce. Locally, the Shoalhaven Homeless Hub, one of our prized local hubs, has been providing homelessness services from its central Nowra address for over 20 years. They have a growing demand for their homelessness walk-in service supporting men, women and children. Fifty-five new clients a month are requiring assistance. An increasing number of people who have never encountered homelessness before are now becoming homeless for the first time. Why? Because of the soaring cost of rent, the soaring cost of living. They have good tenancy history, they pay their rent on time, they're good tenants, but their property is being sold and they cannot find alternative accommodation in the time frame provided. It is impacting on mental health. It is impacting on our local communities.

Words actually failed me when learning firsthand from the manager of the Supported Accommodation and Homelessness Services Shoalhaven, SAHSSI, that the homeless hub was itself about to become homeless. The tenancy on the property, to expire on 26 January, Australia Day next year, will not be renewed. The funding program cannot match local commercial rent, compounded by a lack of available stock. This is a vicious cycle that is playing out across the country.

The failure of this Morrison government is lack of leadership. If you're going to make housing more affordable, then you need the federal government to play an active part. But at the moment this government doesn't even meet with the state governments to talk about this. And when you ask the government if they're prepared to invest money in building more affordable homes for Australians, they say, 'It's not our job.' Well, that's just wrong. A Labour government would establish the Housing Australia Future Fund to invest in affordable and social housing, build more social and affordable housing to fix our housing crisis, and put tradies to work immediately to repair and maintain existing social housing. This coalition government has racked up a trillion dollars in debt and has nothing to show for it.

See this speech in context