Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to bring the tone in here down a little. Usually, you come in for an adjournment speech and, while the place is really feisty at question time, by about this time of night people are usually fairly measured. The member for Mackellar's leaving now, so I suppose the tone will naturally soften—and I'll appreciate it if it does.

The year 2020 has been a trying year for Australia, from the bushfires that whipped through the country across the summer to dealing with the health threats presented to us by COVID-19, and, at all stages, Australians have come together in a spirit of cooperation. I could make the joke that, if I hear 'We're All in this Together' playing on my television again, I'll feel, like a lot of Australians, tired of the tune. But the spirit has been valuable. We saw that in national cabinet, where party lines and state borders were forgotten, to provide clear advice and rules. We saw it in the spirit Australians showed in their willingness and their compliance with the expert advice. We saw it in this very chamber, where we—those across the aisle and on this side—came together for parliamentary sittings to consider, debate and amend urgent legislation without the to-ing and fro-ing from the Liberals because it was a Labor idea, like a wage subsidy or expanding telehealth services, or us in the opposition getting in the way of legislation because it was a Liberal idea.

We need to bring that spirit of cooperation into how we now deal with the long, painful beginnings of economic recovery. We have to deal with the subsequent economic aftershocks of the pandemic, and I know that members opposite, like me, are hearing about those every day on our Facebook feeds, from individuals in our communities who have lost jobs and who cannot find another job after 40 job interviews because the jobs are not there—people who are receiving JobKeeper and people who are not; people who are receiving jobseeker and people who are not.

Today, data released by the Treasury has substantiated something that I've long feared: my community's economy has been one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 lockdown. Today's data has shown two postcodes in Lalor are in the top six of postcodes around the nation with the most JobKeeper applications. Those two postcodes are in the top three in Victoria, behind only the Melbourne CBD's postcode. These two postcodes encompass almost every residential suburb in the seat of Lalor and the city of Wyndham. And—while I've said many times that the JobKeeper payment should be extended, as many locals missed out—the data shows me what I feared. My community is relying on these payments. Our economy is relying on these payments. My high-street shops are relying on people having money in their pockets. And that is why these payments cannot be cut off at the Prime Minister's snapback deadline in September.

The facts are these. We are in a recession for the first time since 1991, and its consequences will be with us when the health impacts are gone. As recently as today, the OECD has joined a chorus of experts calling for the payments to be extended beyond the snapback deadline. From the RBA to the OECD, the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the International Monetary Fund—all have raised their concerns with the PM's snapback cut-off date. The recession will outlive the pandemic. That's why JobKeeper needs to outlive social distancing.

I started my remarks by reflecting on the spirit of cooperation and togetherness that have characterised the Australia of 2020 even more than pandemics and natural disasters, and it's in that spirit that today I have written to the Prime Minister. I'm seeking a meeting to discuss Wyndham's, our businesses' and our workers', dependence on keeping the JobKeeper payments going beyond the snapback. It's as simple as this: if JobKeeper ends in September, our Centrelink queues will be longer, our businesses will close and our economy will be devastated. If the Prime Minister dumps his snapback, these businesses will be given a fighting chance and locals will still be in work. This will be a critical juncture for Wyndham, for our economy and for the over 68,000 families who live in my community and who I represent. Prime Minister, I am here ready to work with you to support Wyndham's businesses and workers.