Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today as we meet in this House there are between 300,000 and 600,000 Australians who are without work for the very first time in their working lives. They have joined the queue of Centrelink, never before having had that experience, and we have to ask the question: what is the government doing about it? The government is undoing the effort that it put in earlier—even though had it to be grudgingly dragged into that effort—by proposing that the COVID supplement be cut even further. It defies logic when we know that those people who earn the least spend the majority of what they get. Innocent workers, through absolutely no fault of their own, have lost their work. People who never imagined they'd have to attend Centrelink have suddenly been forced to do so. Just a few short months ago, they were queuing outside my office in Sturgeon Street, Raymond Terrace. It was a heartbreaking and really difficult moment for many people in my community, and I just want to know: why does this government seek to continually vilify these people? The Prime Minister says, 'Get back to work.' Prime Minister, where are the jobs? There are no jobs for these people. Today, if you are over 35—which by anyone's measure is not a ripe old age; it's young—there are no jobs and you are going to be again disadvantaged by your own— (Time expired)