Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to wish a young girl called Tharunicaa a happy birthday as she turns three. I am very sorry that she is spending her birthday on Christmas Island. Of course, she is there with her sister and her parents and no others. There are only four people being held on the island. For no reason, this family is sitting on Christmas Island, costing the Australian taxpayers millions of dollars—tens of millions of dollars wasted on a cruel political exercise. Instead of wasting millions of dollars keeping this defenceless family on Christmas Island, maybe the government could spend that money on the people in Australia that they are leaving behind.

It says a lot about a government that they are willing to spend money locking up a family on Christmas Island but they cannot find any money to support casual workers, artists, entertainers. They cannot find any money to support those in the university sector. And, only four days after promising the JobKeeper payment until September, the minister has ripped it away from our underpaid childcare workers. This pandemic has taught us that we need to bring people with us and not leave people behind, which is exactly what this Prime Minister is doing. In my electorate there are some of the hardest-hit places—Elwood, St Kilda and Port Melbourne—full of casual workers, people in tourism and hospitality, artists. Instead of the cruel politics, the government should bring this defenceless family home. Stop wasting millions of dollars on these people and stop leaving people behind.