Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we can say, 'Mark your calendars,' because in less than three months the government are packing up shop on the Australian people. As far as the government are concerned now, it's every man, woman and child for themselves, as they pull back from helping Australians through this pandemic. Despite skyrocketing unemployment and underemployment rates, despite no clear path to recovery, the government want to pull the rug out from under struggling families—the end of the JobKeeper program; the end of the coronavirus supplement, with the JobKeeper payment cut in half; the end to wage subsidies for apprentices; the end to the small and medium enterprises loan guarantee, where the government back 50 per cent of new loans issued by lenders; the end to the ban on rental evictions; the end of free child care, which has been plagued by issues and falsehoods from the government but which many families have relied on to stay afloat; and the end to the banks' mortgage freeze. Many people will see their lives turned upside down and tossed about when they're already on the brink.

As we know, this government are all about marketing. Too many Australians will be left behind by the Morrison government. There's a new announcement every day, but they never, ever deliver. They never deliver, and it's always the Australian people who suffer the consequences. People want to see the economy and businesses carefully reopen as soon as it's responsible to do so, based on medical advice. Some parts of the economy will recover faster than others, but not all jobs in all industries will just snap back to normal like Prime Minister Morrison assumes.

We understand that the Prime Minister has acted too narrowly and too slowly. Australians can't afford the government to withdraw support too quickly. Firstly, they promised immediate support for bushfire victims. Months later, we know that only around four per cent of them have received any help. They gave us robodebt, the JobKeeper program, the Ruby Princess and budget stuff-ups, and turned a blind eye to criminals stealing people's superannuation.

Australians have worked together to combat the virus, but more work must be done by the government to ensure that our hardest-hit Australians are not left out and left behind in the recovery. Take the government's announcement on child care, which was to provide six months of free child care. That was the headline. It made for a great headline when it was announced back in April, but for families struggling to make ends meet, for those working in essential jobs or working from home, it could've been welcome respite. But, instead, as we've unfortunately come to expect from this government, when we got beyond the slogans, families and childcare providers were sold a pup.

Prime Minister Morrison reneged on a promise that the JobKeeper program would continue until the end of September by announcing that it would be ripped away from childcare educators in July. With more than 10,000 children under four in McEwen alone, tens of thousands of parents are relying on childcare providers so that they can get back to work. Regardless of what you do for a living, whether you are a nurse, a supermarket worker, an office worker or a teacher, if you have young kids, most of us will need help at some time or another with child care. It's these families whose tax dollars are fronting the Prime Minister's stimulus package. Instead of using those taxpayer dollars to invest in families' wellbeing, supporting those who are trying to return to work and to continue to work, or supporting women trying to raise their own families or run childcare services, the Prime Minister's message is clear: as far as he's concerned, it's not his problem. Despite his initial claims that he consulted with the industry, we later learned that this was simply untrue. There was no consultation with family day care providers. Charity organisations were actually misled on what this meant.

This is a mostly female workforce, with around 95 per cent of childcare workers being women. The government's mismanagement of this so-called free child care has been a monument to the Morrison government's attitude towards supporting women in the workforce. While we know that most childcare workers are women, we also know that it's mothers who continue to take on the lion's share when it comes to child care. We know that if families can't afford child care, mums are more likely to skip a shift or reduce their hours to make sure that the kids are looked after and that the family budget stays in the black. The damage of this policy will be felt for decades after the pandemic is over.

As I said, the government assured us they would leave the program alone until September. While this left many childcare workers on severely reduced incomes, it at least gave them a timeline to work with, to plan and to survive. But, in a massive U-turn, 120,000 childcare workers have now been told that they will lose access to the JobKeeper payment in July—two full months before the government promised it would end. Three days after the Prime Minister guaranteed all Australian workers on the JobKeeper payment that payments would continue until September he kicked early educators out of the program.

Let's be clear about the JobKeeper scheme: wage subsidies along with the principle of keeping workers connected to their employers in order for businesses to restart after times of crisis is a good idea. We know it's a good idea, because Labor put forward the idea. Labor, the trade unions, the business community and leading economists were all calling on the government to introduce a wage subsidy scheme for months before Treasurer Frydenberg was dragged kicking and screaming to take any action whatsoever.

We all know that good ideas are simply not enough when you're in government. Good ideas and good government require good governance and strong leadership. From day one, after the Morrison government belatedly and begrudgingly introduced the JobKeeper scheme, we have sadly seen mistake after mistake. Some of the mistakes, like the $60 billion budgeting blunder, occurred simply due to the government's careless implementation. It meant that rating agencies were misled, investors were misled, businesses were misled and Australian workers who found themselves out of work were misled. It's a budgeting bungle that is bigger than any in the history of this nation. I can guarantee one thing: we won't see them flogging that on black mugs anywhere!

Sadly, for other people in Australia, these cuts have been much worse and much more sinister. What really worries me is that there are many examples where we now see the Morrison government making calculated and cruel decisions to deliberately dud workers who were promised, and took it in good faith, they would be looked after by the scheme during difficult times—people like the workers at dnata, who were sold an absolute pup. They actually applied. They were given the go-ahead to go and do it, and then the government reversed their decision late one Friday afternoon in what's becoming known as 'take out the trash Friday' with this government.

They have also deliberately left behind casuals, freelancers, temporary migrants, NDIS workers, local government employees, charity workers, teachers and university staff. They all contribute to building a nation and they were all deliberately failed by this government. It's hard to have any faith that this lot have the capacity to deliver a plan that will effectively transition the economy out of the pandemic, let alone that they will have the intention of looking after the most vulnerable and deserving along the way.

The economy was not going well before coronavirus, drought and bushfires, and the Morrison government has no plan to turn it around. How this support is removed from the economy is as important as how it was introduced. You can't just turn it off like a tap. Recently the OECD has warned about the risk of removing assistance too early, and many sectors from across the economy are currently calling for jobseeker to be extended for six months. With a little over 12 weeks before all assistance packages are set to expire, the government has provided no certainty and no clarity to Australian workers. The support must be phased out in a responsible way that doesn't undermine Australia's recovery or risk thousands of jobs. Millions of Australians who have lost their job because of the pandemic are anxious and going to be wondering how they're going to make ends meet, while the Prime Minister sits back and says: 'No. We can just snap back. It all ends in September.'

One thing that we've talked about too is the need for infrastructure, and the government belatedly has come to the party talking about shovel-ready projects. We've had two shovel-ready projects sitting on our books for a long time: the Wallan interchange on the Hume Highway, which is a federal government responsibility, and the Macedon Ranges sports precinct. Both of these projects are ready to go. The federal government is the only roadblock stopping these much needed projects being delivered. The Macedon Ranges Shire Council is on board. The Victorian government is on board. In fact, even the Victorian Liberals came on board with this project for the Macedon Ranges sports precinct as an election promise.

Twice the shire has applied to the federal government for funding, and twice they've been misled and twice they've been knocked back. Enough is enough is enough. Hundreds and hundreds of families each and every week can't get access to the sporting facilities they need because this government is too cruel and heartless to support people in regional areas. We've seen the way that this government has made promises that they've never delivered. We only have to look at the Calder Freeway. Fifty million dollars was promised by this government to deliver extra loans to the Calder Freeway, and not one cent has been spent. The Hume Highway, Australia's traffic spine, needs extra lanes put in it because of the growth in the outer suburbs and the growth in regional areas. Again, it was a promise made by the government before the election, and there's been not a single peep afterwards.

People rightly are finding that they're more and more cynical with politics these days. And, sadly, when you've got a government that's all spin and no substance, runs out of headline and doesn't deliver on its promises, this is only going to get worse and worse. It's time the government stood up for Australians instead of standing on them.