Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Greyhound Australia at Pinkenba, in my electorate of Lilley, employs 77 local workers, but their jobs are now on the line due to the policy choices of this Morrison government, specifically the Prime Minister's decision to axe JobKeeper before the vaccine was properly rolled out. He had only two jobs to look after this year. Vaccine rollout was one of them. He's failed to do so. He kicked off JobKeeper anyway, and now these 77 jobs are on the line. Two weeks ago I wrote to the Acting Prime Minister on behalf of Greyhound Australia, calling on him to expand the federal travel subsidy in lieu of reintroducing JobKeeper for tourism businesses that are still struggling to stay afloat. The response I got from the Prime Minister, just like when I asked him to help my aviation workers on the north side at Brisbane Airport, was: 'Aren't I already doing enough?' It made me think of the John Howard line 'Working families have never been better off.' 'Aren't I already doing enough?' No, you are not already doing enough. So I rise to tell the Acting Prime Minister: so long as these 77 jobs hang on the line in my electorate of Lilley because of your policy decisions, then, no, you are not doing enough. We still have this afternoon. We still have next week. We can legislate to expand the tourism subsidy to include tourism companies like Greyhound Australia, to protect local tourism jobs in Queensland and to protect 77 workers in Lilley.