Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to speak to the House about where the rubber hits the road on the issues that have been raised today by the member for Wannon. I have a situation in my electorate where, through domestic violence, a woman and her well-loved boys of the community were displaced from their home. I had some contacts, and I went to the local estate agent in this small town—I won't mention the town—and said: 'Look, can you help me? I have this woman who has had to leave home.' And the best we could offer her was two caravans with a tent over the top. I considered that, and I didn't know what to do.

With the help of the local Manna Gum Community House, we wrote to the whole community in that area and said: 'Have you got a house? Have you got a farmhouse? Have you got this? Have you got that?' When I went to the estate agent, they said, 'Russell, we've got one house for rent, and we've got 15 applicants for that house.' Now, are they going to take the woman with her boys who have just been thrown out of a house, or are they going to take someone who's wealthy and who's going to pay their rent? So we went to the community house, and we wrote the letter, and, sure enough, we turned up some people who were prepared to rent this woman a house. She stayed in the town, her boys stayed with all their mates in the community and that was one situation resolved. But there are hundreds of those right across my electorate, and I know it would be the same for the member for Wannon, where we have no housing stock for workers, no housing stock for farmworkers, no housing stock anywhere for anybody.

This has been a most difficult issue because of the movement of people from cities to the country during the pandemic. I get asked quite often: 'Where have all the workers gone? Where are they? Where are the workers?' I have to tell you that in one health service in Victoria, they have 18,000 employees and 2,500 of them decided not to be vaccinated, so they all lost their jobs. Out of those 18,000 workers, they are 2,500 down. I don't know how many resigned and I don't know how many took early retirement, but 2,500 are missing out of that one health service. Where are the workers that we need? I'm looking at the proposal before the House and importance of that proposal, but housing has been an issue for a long time—outside of what the pandemic caused—in every electorate, and especially for those who are least able to look after themselves.

There are other areas where we're missing workers as well. For instance, I read this week that in the US actuaries and insurance companies have predicted an emerging medical and economic crisis caused by a workforce disabled by the vaccines. It's happening in the US.

Talking about workforce constraints, why are Services Australia wasting time writing officious letters to vaccine injured people demanding that they only speak to the one appointed contact? Take Debbie's case—not her real name. Debbie said their contact officer, Bernadette—not her real name—has written to Debbie about new ways to interact with staff in the vaccine claims scheme. I'll share the highlights of the letter:

How you can contact us has changed.

You now have one person you can contact to do business with us. Your contact person is Bernadette—

not her real name.

They will help you with referrals and information about our services.

That's fine.

What this means … You can only contact us by (1) Calling Bernadette or (2) Calling/writing to Services Australia.

The letter goes on:

You can contact Bernadette and they will explain the decision.

They—'they'—will explain the decision. I don't mind what Bernadette is; I just want the public servants to—

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