Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

As the government has done throughout this crisis, it is committed to assisting businesses and individuals through the COVID-19 pandemic. This bill will enable the government to support individuals and businesses that are impacted by significant lockdowns caused by COVID-19.

In particular, schedule 1 to the bill amends the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Bill 2020 to allow the Treasurer to make rules for economic response payments to provide support to an entity where they are adversely affected by restrictions imposed by a state or territory to control COVID-19.

Schedule 2 to the bill amends the Taxation Administration Act to allow the ATO to share data with Australian government agencies, both federal and state, for the purpose of administering only relevant COVID-19 business support program payments.

Schedule 3 to the bill amends the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to introduce a new power to make eligible Commonwealth COVID-19 business grants free from income tax.

States and territories are already able to apply to the Commonwealth for the same tax treatment where they have grant programs focused on supporting small and medium-sized businesses facing exceptional circumstances.

Schedule 4 to the bill will reinstate the operation of a temporary mechanism put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic that has now lapsed, which allows information and documentary requirements between government and businesses to be altered. This includes requirements to give information to government in writing and produce, witness and sign documents.

Given the ongoing impacts and physical limitations imposed by COVID-19, there is still a clear need for these provisions.

This measure provides that a responsible minister may determine that provisions in Commonwealth legislation containing particular information or documentary requirements can be varied; do not apply; or prescribe that another provision specified in the determination applies, for a specified time period. A responsible minister must not exercise the power unless they are satisfied that such a determination is in response to circumstances relating to COVID-19.

The mechanism is temporary and will be repealed at the end of 31 December 2022. Any determination made under the mechanism will also cease to operate when the temporary mechanism is repealed.

Schedule 5 to the bill amends the income tax law to make Commonwealth COVID-19 disaster payments received by individuals from the 2020-21 income year onwards non-assessable non-exempt income.

This change will provide additional support to individuals receiving COVID-19 disaster payments by, importantly, making these payments free from any tax.

Full details of the measures are contained in the explanatory memorandum.

Leave granted for second reading debate to continue immediately.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (COVID-19 Economic Response No. 2) Bill 2021. These are incredibly difficult times for the Australian people, but particularly, I think, for Australians in locked-down communities. We think particularly of the people of Sydney and surrounds. We think of the people in my hometown of Logan City, Brisbane, the surrounding local government areas and further afield. We think about the people of Melbourne and Victoria. We think about the people of Adelaide and South Australia, who only recently had restrictions in those lovely parts of Australia lifted. These are incredibly difficult times. We are dealing with the delta strain of this virus, which is causing havoc in our local communities. We see that day to day with the current announcements out of the New South Wales government and the Queensland government about these latest outbreaks.

There's a human cost to this, of course, and that's the most important cost. Of course, the cost to people's mental health is especially challenging. I want to acknowledge John Brogden and the people from Lifeline for the briefing that I received last week about some of the human elements, some of the mental health elements, of these lockdowns. The human cost is the most important. We understand that people are finding it difficult. Families and people on their own right around Australia in lockdown communities from time to time are finding this incredibly difficult.

But there's an economic cost as well as this human cost that so many people are paying for more lockdowns in our communities and in our economy. The Treasurer himself has put a number on the cost to the economy of these lockdowns. He said, I'm assuming based on the advice of Treasury—I hope—that the lockdowns are costing the national economy something like $300 million a day and a couple of billion dollars a week. That's an extraordinary price to pay. The Business Council of Australia have done their own well-considered and informed work on all of this and think that the cost may be even higher than that. These are extraordinary costs that the national economy is bearing when it comes to lost activity in the economy. We know that when we see this kind of lost activity that it has consequences for people's jobs, for their ability to provide for their loved ones and for their ability to maintain their living standards.

We have said all along—all throughout this year, really, from the beginning of 2021—that as the government has been in this rush to pat themselves on the back for the beginnings of an economic recovery, which came after the first recession in almost 30 years and the worst recession in almost 100 years, that the government shouldn't be in a rush to congratulate themselves on the beginnings of a recovery. We said all along—and, unfortunately, we've been proved right by recent events—that this recovery was always hostage to the government's ability to roll out the vaccines and to build purpose-built quarantine facilities. It would be better if the government had done that; we could have avoided these lockdowns, or at least the severity of these lockdowns, if the government had done those two jobs.

We've said, really, for some time now—I've lost count of the amount of times that I've said it—'You cannot have a first-rate economic recovery with a third-rate vaccine roll out'. That's what we're seeing right now, literally today and for the last few weeks. What we're seeing is the price that Australians are paying in their economy for the government's failure to do those two really important jobs. That failure is costing the economy hundreds of millions of dollars a day and billions of dollars a week. We've said for much of this year: 'Be really careful about how quickly you withdraw economic support. Don't end the economic support before the pandemic ends. Have the ability to dial that up or dial that down.' JobKeeper was key in 2020 in being able to do that and it shouldn't have been discarded so readily and easily in March.

Remember that when the government first said that they would discard JobKeeper in March it was also when they said that four million Australians would be vaccinated. They linked the two things together. So they were too quick to withdraw support and too slow to roll out the vaccines, and that's why Australians are paying the price for that misjudgment—that error, that public policy mistake that has been made by those opposite. We can't have that great recovery enduring if the government doesn't do the constituent parts of that recovery when it comes to vaccines and quarantine, and economic support as well.

When we said that they were withdrawing support too soon, the government was in this rush to pat themselves on the back for the beginnings of the recovery. We said, 'There will be a need; your own budget says there will be lockdowns each month for the rest of the year.' The government factored that into the budget in one respect but they didn't factor in that they might actually have to do something about it—that they might actually have to come to the assistance of Australians, whether it's in my part of the world, whether it's in the Hunter or whether it's in the suburbs of Melbourne represented by the member over there. We have said for some time that they need to have the capacity to help out. These lockdowns are a consequence of the failures on vaccines and quarantine. The least they can do is come and help Australians who are the unwilling victims of their incompetence in those two really important areas.

What we've seen since then—and we all know what's happening here—is that the government don't want to admit that they were wrong to pull the rug out from under Australians too early when it comes to government support. We've had four attempts now to make up for that public policy mistake. Each time they've popped up and said, 'No, no, this is all we need to do,' and it's become obvious within an hour or two that that hasn't been the case. Every few days we get another announcement and another shirty prime ministerial press conference, where he seems to be personally affronted that people are asking questions about these issues. He's probably doing one as we speak. I think he is.

We've had four attempts at replacing JobKeeper. Each one of them has been inferior. Each one has had different eligibility criteria. Each one has had a different level of payment. It's policy on the run. They're scrambling to make up for it. They're scrambling to fill what they see as a political hole to be filled, not a human cost that people are paying in our communities. They need help. The government always see things as, 'How do we close down this political problem that's emerging?' as it dawns on more and more Australians that the government's not prepared to do what's necessary to compensate them and help them through a difficult period caused by the government's incompetence. So we've had these four attempts, and there have been gaps each time. There have been problems each time. There hasn't been a perfect substitute for JobKeeper, but each time the government comes forward with a package of support we say: 'We're not going to stand in the way of that support. We think there's a better way of doing it, but it's not in the interests of the country for us to stand in the way of that government support being provided.'

That's what guides our approach to these bills. We will support these bills through the parliament. We may have done things differently. We may point out—and subsequent speakers will point out—some of the gaps and some of the issues that we have with this government support, but we do support the efforts to remove some of the obstacles as the federal government works with the state governments in providing this advice. There are some obstacles there that we need to remove, so we obviously support that effort. We do need to have the capacity to share information between the feds and the state governments to make that support possible. There are some issues around the extension of electronic signatures and other issues like that, and obviously we're not going to stand in the way of that. That's one set. There are five schedules, and that's one set of objectives covered by three of those five schedules. The other two are about the tax free nature of the payments. Again, we will support that. We will vote for that here in the parliament. If that's another way to get more support to people who desperately need it then so be it.

It's worth noting, on the way through, that it wasn't the government's intention that these payments be tax free. JobKeeper was a part of the tax system. What actually happened was the Prime Minister was asked about this in a media interview last week and said it would be tax free. He said that it would be tax free. You can imagine all his colleagues scurrying around in the Treasurer's office drafting this legislation so that the legislation reflects the error that the Prime Minister made in that interview. I don't intend to dwell on that, but it is the case that these payments are tax free because the Prime Minister wasn't across the detail of the original announcement. If that means more support for people, good, but let's not pretend that the two schedules that go to the tax free nature of these payments were some sort of deliberate act of public policy genius. It was a mistake made by the Prime Minister in a media interview, and that's why it's represented here in the legislation. Those opposite will deny that, but I think we all know what went on here.

The major issue we have, when it comes to these packages of support, is, however welcome it is to get money into the hands of families and small businesses, and workers in particular—that is obviously a crucial thing right now as the economy bleeds those billions of dollars in lost activity each week, and it is crucial that we get the support out as soon as possible. But we should recognise that even these bills, the fourth attempt at announcing a package of support, don't properly deal with the cause of these lockdowns or all of the consequences of these lockdowns. Even with the best effort to pass this package of support through the parliament, we will still be leaving the cause of the lockdowns unattended to and some of the consequences unattended to as well. One cause is obviously the extremely slow vaccine rollout, which has us at the tail end of the developed world when it comes to vaccination rates. It is something that those opposite, frankly, should be ashamed of. We should be better than that in this country. We are capable of so much in this country. We are capable of doing amazing things. The Australian people are doing their bit. They need the government to do their bit when it comes to rolling out the vaccines. With the vaccine rollout there have been so many issues which could have been avoided had the government gone about this task in a more competent fashion. So that is something left unattended to by these bills.

Then there is purpose-built quarantine. It beggars belief, frankly, that the budget or anything subsequently hasn't contained more sufficient investment in purpose-built quarantine. We're 19 or 20 months into this pandemic and still there's no purpose-built quarantine in addition to Howard Springs. That's a remarkable failure and another of the causes of these lockdowns.

The bill deals with some of the consequences, it tries to provide some support, but we need to consider that the economy is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars a day, billions of dollars a week. Most credible economists think that the September quarter will be negative in terms of economic growth. The economy will shrink in September, according to the considered view of the country's most respected economists. Nobody quite knows about the December quarter. The Treasurer himself said that he can't rule out the second recession in two calendar years. We don't know yet, obviously, because we don't know how long Sydney will be locked down and we don't know how long South-East Queensland will be locked down. We don't know what the future lockdown scene around Australia will look like, so we don't yet know what December will look like. But we do know that the economy, for the time being, is in all sorts. So this otherwise welcome support, in my view, won't do enough to stem the bleeding from what's happening right now in the national economy—and I've dealt with some of those numbers provided by the government, the BCA and others.

One of the reasons I will be moving the second reading amendment circulated in my name is that I think it's critical that we acknowledge that the economic costs of this crisis come from the failure on vaccinations. It has meant that businesses and workers are struggling, and that's why the economy is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars a day. So I will be moving the second reading amendment circulated in my name.

Throughout this pandemic, we on this side of the House have done our best to be constructive and to put forward ideas that we think will be helpful as we try to combat the virus, in the first instance, and the economic consequences of the virus. Throughout all of 2020 and 2021, yes, we've picked up the government when we've thought they were doing a bad job, and, yes, we've mentioned where there were gaps. But overwhelmingly what has guided us has been not the politics of the day but the national interest in combatting this virus. We said the country needed wage subsidies, and the Prime Minister and the Treasurer said they would be dangerous. When they had a change of heart, it was a welcome change of heart. We didn't rub their noses in it, because we wanted the country to have those wage subsidies. There was lots of waste, they didn't do it perfectly, but they implemented wage subsidies. And they were important. When they took the credit for them, we said, 'That is fine.' It was our idea; it was dismissed by those opposite. They had a change of heart; it was good for the country that they did.

That's the approach that guided us and that's the approach that guides us today. When we think about the twin issues that we're dealing with now—the slow rate of the vaccine rollout and the slowing economy—we believe there is something that can be done responsibly to deal with both of those issues at once, and that is a cash incentive for people to get vaccinated. What we have proposed is a $300 payment on the second jab, before 1 December, incorporating everyone who's had it to now, everyone who would get it between now and the start of the policy, everyone who would get it up until 1 December. This is partly a reward for people doing the right thing. We acknowledge that they have all kinds of motivations, all kinds of good motivations, to get vaccinated. This is a reward for doing the right thing. It's an encouragement, an incentive, for people to get vaccinated. The national cabinet's own guidelines talk about providing incentives. We think that this is a good, responsible way to go about it. This will also be a shot in the arm for the economy and a shot in the arm, in a public health sense, to get the vaccine rollout going again. It will be a shot in the arm for families and small businesses and for an economy that desperately needs some help right now. So this would be good from a public health point of view but would also be an important economic stimulus in the system. That's why we think it is important, in addition to the support in this bill, that the government pick up and run with the idea that we have proposed today.

If we get the vaccine rollout right, we give ourselves a chance of getting the economy right. Look at what Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics said today: 'Vaccinations are Australia's path out of the COVID crisis. It's not just the number of jabs that matter; how fast they happen is vital too.' That's absolutely spot-on. He also said, 'We estimate that one job is being saved for every nine extra people getting vaccinated now, rather than later, in New South Wales.' That's bang on. What he's saying there is that getting everyone vaccinated as soon as possible is important, and if we do that we will save more jobs than we would do otherwise.

Of course, as always, before properly contemplating what we're proposing today with this cash incentive for people to get vaccinated, the government come out and make all kinds of criticisms. I just want to deal briefly with three of those. The first one is that they want to talk about what's responsible in terms of spending. Well, what could be more responsible than investing in the public health response in a way that has such a substantial economic dividend—a good dividend for small business and for workers and for local communities? If those opposite want to talk about budget responsibility, we're not taking lectures from them. They are the most wasteful government since Federation when it comes to sports rorts, 'pork and ride', Safer Communities rorts, dodgy land deals and wasting $13 billion on JobKeeper payments for businesses that didn't need it because their profits actually went up. The price tag here, if you want to talk about responsibility, is minor compared to the billions of dollars a week the economy is bleeding because the government can't do its job.

I heard the finance minister on Radio National this morning talking about our policy being 'insulting'. I'll tell you what's insulting: insulting is being at the tail end of the medal tally when it comes to the vaccine rollout because the government can't get its act together. Think of all the sacrifices Australians have made for each other to get ourselves through and to do the right thing by each other. The government is not doing its bit when it comes to vaccines. That's insulting to the Australian people. You want to talk about what's insulting. That's insulting.

They say that these kinds of incentives won't work. Well, let me tell you what's not working: the vaccine rollout is not working and the economy is not working as it should. We're not dealing with the causes and the consequences of these lockdowns. If they think that their rollout is going well, if they think that the economy is going well and that nothing needs to change and there's no need for fresh thinking, then they are from another planet.

I will finish on this point. We've seen this before. We come up with an idea, like we did with wage subsidies, and the government spends a few days, or maybe a couple of weeks, saying it's a dangerous idea. Then, with wage subsidies, they picked it up and ran with it and they took the credit for its success. We genuinely hope they do that again. We expected them to be dismissive today, but we call on them to pick this idea up and run with it, which is offered in good faith. It's a constructive idea. It mirrors what others are doing around the world and mirrors the kind of good thinking that's happening in the business community when it comes to incentives for vaccinations. We encourage the government, we urge the government, we implore the government: please pick this idea up and run with it. The support in this legislation is important, but we can and should be doing more to deal with the causes and consequences of these lockdowns, and we think providing a cash incentive for vaccinations is a good way to go about it.

I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes

(1) only 15 per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated;

(2) businesses and workers are struggling from lockdowns made necessary by the Government's botched vaccine rollout and the lack of purpose-built quarantine facilities; and

(3) these lockdowns are costing the Australian economy hundreds of millions of dollars every day".

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

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

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, as the member for Rankin outlined and as the Assistant Treasurer outlined in his opening remarks, this is a very difficult time for many Australians right across the country, whether it's in my home town of the City of Logan and the northern Gold Coast or whether it's New South Wales and Victoria or, to a lesser degree, whether it's South Australia. But there have also been impacts further afield, in WA. The whole country actually suffers as a result of these outbreaks.

While we have been able to come to Canberra and continue the process of parliament, there are many, many people in many, many businesses right across my electorate and across broader parts of Australia that don't have that luxury, that are struggling to decide how they keep their doors open and how they keep people employed. That is what this bill and many of the other support measures that we have put in place over the last 12 months have been designed to do. It's been about keeping business turning over and keeping people employed and engaged with the businesses that employ them to ensure that, as we come out of these lockdowns and these restrictions, we can see that recovery, once again, come to fruition.

In the early part of this year we saw the ingenuity and the willingness of Australian business and the Australian community, when the opportunity presented itself, to get out there on the front foot and build on the opportunities that were sustained through the programs that this government put in place through 2020. Whether it was JobKeeper, the SME loan guarantee, the instant asset write-off extension or the instant expensing provisions, I know all of those measures were used by a variety of businesses across my electorate of Forde. In some cases it was one; in other cases it was a number. From speaking to those businesses, I know the benefit and value it had to them. Equally, the package of measures in this bill is about getting money out the door into our economy to support people in their current time of need. We don't know where individual people's situations are at, but through these measures in this bill we create the opportunity for them to make that assessment and to take advantage of the support that this government has provided, if they meet the conditions around which that support will be provided.

I note that the member for Rankin spoke at length about the vaccine rollout. I'm pleased to share with the House that some 41 per cent of the population across the country have now received their first dose and some 20 per cent their second dose. And we're seeing that ramp up each and every day. As we see the vaccination rates ramp up as the vaccination rollout continues to gather pace, the opportunity to move through the four-stage process that the Prime Minister and the premiers agreed to last Friday at national cabinet will get closer and closer to coming to fruition. And that staged process is about ensuring that we have the protections in place to open up our economy once again. We saw the success of that earlier this year. We recognise that we can't forever stay in this situation of lockdowns—coming out of a lockdown and going back into a lockdown when there's another outbreak. We have already seen a significant increase in the number of younger people impacted by the delta variant. Sadly a young 38-year-old lady lost her life in Sydney in the last week or so having been infected by the delta variant. So these are crucially important measures.

I am pleased to note that in my home state of Queensland the Chief Health Officer who has been opposed to the broader rollout of AstraZeneca—one of the important vaccines in dealing with this outbreak—has today changed her tune and has now got on board with the ATAGI advice of allowing the AstraZeneca rollout to be made more broadly available. I know a number of young people, who I've spoken to over the past few weeks across my electorate, who are keen and willing to get whatever vaccine is available to them—not just Pfizer; they were willing to get the AstraZeneca based on an informed discussion with their doctor. I'm pleased to see that the Chief Health Officer in Queensland has changed her view on that. Hopefully that will see Queensland catch up with vaccination rates to the averages of the rest of the country because currently we trail those averages across the country.

This government continues to be focused—through this bill and through, as I said, many other measures that we previously brought before this House—to seek to continue to support our economy, particularly our businesses, but also individuals in this time. I know that there will always be differing views on how well these packages are rolling out and whatever. It's always easy to be wise in hindsight. We are seeking to make the best decisions with the best information we have available at the time. Over the past 12 or 18 months we have shown the capacity to change and make adjustments to the packages and the programs that we are rolling out to reflect changes in circumstances as and when they occur. I note that many businesses in my electorate have been very appreciative of our willingness to do that. I continue to engage with my business community about the issues they're seeing on the ground and provide that feedback to the Treasurer to continue to review and refine the programs that we are rolling out.

I commend this package of measures to the House as another step in ensuring that we are providing the support necessary across our economy to deal with the economic impacts of COVID-19. Whilst we are focusing on these bills, on the economic impacts, let us not forget the health and other impacts on our communities as well. The government has equally outlined measures around mental health and other things in the budget that're focused on dealing with those health and mental health issues that we know are impacting people across the country.

I know a number of discussions were had in the last couple of days with people across my electorate where we're trying to get resources to them because they're too afraid to leave their houses. We have some great community groups like Lighthouse Care, twin Rivers care and others who are also providing enormous community support across the electorate, particularly to support frail and elderly people who have a degree of fear about going out at present. We are ensuring that where necessary we're getting the supports, in terms of food or medicines or other critical supplies, to those people in need and that is being done right across the country.

I want to take this opportunity to thank those community groups, many of whom are run by volunteers, who are willing to go out there and support these people in need at this crucial time. I commend these bills to the House, in their unamended form, because they will continue to keep things ticking over so that, when we come out of a lockdown, our economy will have the ability to again recover. We have done it before. We have seen the capacity of Australian business people and Australians more generally to get out there and do that. It's typical of the Australian attitude of getting out there and getting things done. I commend these bills to the House.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to put on the record for the parliament some of the frustration that the community I represent in Sydney is feeling about this Liberal long lockdown that our community is suffering through at the moment. There's a great deal of frustration and anger in the community that I represent because of the Morrison government's incompetence and failure to show leadership and take responsibility for the problems associated with hotel quarantine and the bungled vaccine rollout.

This long lockdown seems to have no end in sight. Workers have lost jobs, businesses are on the brink, the mental health of many in our community is deteriorating, and children are unable to attend school. The worrying thing is that there appears to be no end in sight, and the government can't get on top of this latest outbreak. Many in the community are questioning the competence of the Morrison and Berejiklian governments to bring this outbreak under control.

In terms of the vaccine rollout, we've seen the government's arrogance and incompetence on full display. Labor warned that this would happen. Last year, when the government did negotiate enough supply deals with manufacturers, Labor warned that this would be the consequence this year with the bungled vaccine rollout. We knew that the commitments that the Prime Minister made to the Australian people would never be met. We all knew that the commitment to vaccinate four million Australians by the end of March would not be met, and the government failed to do that. The Prime Minister said that Australia was at the front of the queue. That's a broken promise, because Australia is actually 78th in the world, with only 15 per cent of our population vaccinated. The anecdotal evidence in the community, unfortunately, reinforces that poor statistic.

Many Australians want to get vaccinated, but, when they try and register through the government's vaccine eligibility website, they can't get an appointment. I want to relay to the parliament an email that I received a couple of weeks ago from a local who lives in Botany, who wrote: 'I'm writing this as I strongly believe that our area is missing out on the Pfizer vaccine. I've tried GPs in Botany, two in Mascot—Eastgardens don't even answer—two in Maroubra, one GP in Green Square last week, and none of them had the Pfizer vaccine. Can you please push Greg Hunt for an answer to when my local GP in Botany will receive the Pfizer vaccine? I wrote to Brad Hazzard asking this, and they passed it on to Greg, and no response. My local GP in Botany doesn't even know when they will receive it.' That's a message from a constituent in the community that I represent about the government's failed vaccine rollout. The government's encouraging people to get vaccinated. That's pretty hard when you can't make an appointment for a booking. We have the government's mixed messages about the appropriate vaccine, which have created a lot of confusion in the local community and this vaccine hesitancy. The Prime Minister always blames someone else; it's ATAGI's fault or it's the state's fault.

We've got frontline staff in the community that I represent that can't register for a vaccine. The New South Wales government has decided that year 12 students will return to school in less than two weeks, yet many teachers still can't register to get a vaccination. Principals are being given very little guidance about how students are going to return to school safely. We've got teachers unvaccinated and students using public transport who are coming from hotspot areas. It appears that the government, both state and federal, are making this up as they go along, and that is creating a lot of confusion in our community.

I'd like to turn to the economic impacts. This bill provides the Commonwealth with the ability to administer business support payments if a state or territory is unable to administer its own payments or arrangements. The bill also allows the Treasurer to create a program of economic response payments until December 2022 and provides for the tax-free treatment of payments from Commonwealth COVID-19 business support programs. I support all these reforms. But this lockdown has been devastating for many in the small business community and workers, and I don't think the government really understands how their delay in acting has caused so much pain and suffering and downturn for small businesses in our community. Many are saying that the government were too slow to react, that they failed to appreciate the nature of this downturn and that they can't give business any certainty or a way and a plan out of this current lockdown.

Over the past few weeks I've spoken to many small businesses in our community. Some have just given up. They've closed their doors. Almost all of them are struggling, and many have laid off staff. In those conversations with small businesses, many of them are telling me that this lockdown is different to the one that occurred in 2020-21, and the principal reason for that is that on this occasion there's no JobKeeper from the government to support their businesses. The business support they were all hoping for simply hasn't been there, and because of that they couldn't keep their staff on. Businesses that have been able to continue to trade are also saying that, compared with 2020-21, they're facing a downturn, because there's no discretionary spending in the community due to the lack of JobKeeper support payments.

The government reluctantly increased the COVID-19 Disaster Payment after I and many Labor MPs had relayed the stories of what was going on in the local community. But they did this reluctantly and begrudgingly, with no understanding of the suffering for small businesses. In the end, it represented a lack of leadership from the government about their understanding of small business and about taking action quickly to provide that support for jobs and small businesses in our community. There are still people who are falling through the cracks. This week I received a phone call from the mother of a young apprentice hairdresser who started her apprenticeship earlier this year and has been working in a salon in the local community here. Obviously the salon has had to close, and that apprentice has been stood down without any work. She's gone from earning $850 a fortnight to earning nothing, because the government's COVID-19 Disaster Payment does not apply to workers under the age of 17 years. There are many young working apprentices throughout this country who deserve the support of this government, but the government has failed them. I think it goes to the fact that, when it comes to putting these packages together, this government doesn't think about workers. They don't think about apprentices and workers who need their support. They start from the basis of thinking of the owners of the business, and that is wrong.

In the aviation sector we're seeing troubling times once again. Sydney airport is the biggest employer in the community I represent, and it is once again on its knees, and all the businesses associated with the airport are struggling. Already 10,000 jobs have been lost in the aviation sector in Australia, and today Qantas announced that a further 2½ thousand staff will be stood down for a period of two months. The government's had 18 months to come up with a plan for the survival and recovery of the Australian aviation sector, but instead they've sat on their hands. They could have used the billions of dollars in support that they offered to major airlines to secure the jobs of workers but have chosen not to do so.

We saw yesterday that the government came up with what was essentially a stopgap announcement for the industry, and typically in this shambolic approach it looks to exclude ground-handling staff and airport staff, who are a crucial and important part of the aviation sector. Initially, only 50 per cent of pilots and cabin crew from airlines will be eligible for the payment, provided they can prove revenue was down at least 30 per cent. Again, we've got a group of workers and employees that are falling through the cracks, because, when it comes to putting these packages together, the government doesn't think of workers. The government is not on the side of workers when it comes to government support such as this.

In conclusion, the Morrison government have failed the people of Australia in their response to COVID-19, particularly the people of Sydney related to this latest lockdown. Their failings on quarantine and on the vaccine rollout have been writ large during this latest lockdown. Our economy is losing billions of dollars per week, jobs have been lost and are being lost, businesses are closing and struggling to survive, the mental health of many in our community is deteriorating and our children aren't attending school at the moment. Australia is in a heavy and deep funk at the moment because of the Morrison government's incompetence. The Australian people deserve better than this failed and incompetent Morrison government.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I'm pleased to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (COVID-19 Economic Response No. 2) Bill 2021. I'm appearing virtually from my electorate office in Pennant Hills to participate and to give voice to the people of my community, who at this time are under lockdown. In doing so, Mr Speaker, I want to acknowledge you, the Chief Whip and the parliamentary officers for making this possible. I also want to acknowledge the people of my electorate who are locked down today in their homes, from Cheltenham in the south to Wisemans Ferry in the north, from Brooklyn in the east to Sackville North in the west and all the suburbs in between. I want the people of my electorate to know that I am with them, as the government is with them, in providing support to our community.

Right across my electorate, people are facing challenges. Whether it is doing as we've been doing in balancing working from home and home schooling, whether it is businesses not operating or whether it is workers who are not in work, people in my electorate are doing it tough. Today I particularly want to acknowledge the people in Carlingford, in the south of my electorate, which is also in the Parramatta LGA, people under the most severe lockdowns of any part of the country. There are residents in Carlingford who can only move five kilometres from their house and whenever they leave their house to go anywhere they must have a mask on. This is an unprecedented time for people in my community. The Delta strain of COVID-19 is more infectious than any other we've encountered before. By the end of August, Sydney will have experienced a lockdown of between nine and 10 weeks.

In March this year my electorate experienced severe flooding on the Hawkesbury River. At that time, the federal government's disaster recovery payments were a godsend in keeping people going and getting them through those hard times. The payments were essential to support the community to recover and rebuild. I'm so proud that so many members of the Berowra community have shown great resilience in bouncing back from those devastating floods. But, of course, businesses impacted by the floods are in many cases being impacted again by the lockdown. Those disaster recovery payments got out the door quickly and have proven to be very effective. It's the experience of dealing with disaster recovery payments which have made them such a good model for the COVID disaster recovery payment system.

That's why the Morrison government has partnered with the New South Wales government to deliver a comprehensive package of support to individuals and businesses across the country, which is particularly focused on people like my constituents in Sydney who are locked down at this time. The legislation that we have before the House provides the backbone for the cooperation and information sharing between our government and the states and the payments which are being made to my community at this time. It enables the government to make disaster recovery payments to individuals and businesses and to make those payments tax free.

I want to say something about what these supports mean for people in my electorate and Australians more broadly. Under the enhanced COVID disaster recovery payment regime, people who have lost more than 20 hours of work can claim $750 a week and people who've lost between eight hours and 20 hours a week can claim $450 a week. This is the same level of support that was received last year under the JobKeeper program. Individuals who currently receive an income support payment through the social security system can receive a weekly supplement of $200 in addition to their existing payment if they can demonstrate they've lost more than eight hours of work and meet other eligibility requirements for the COVID-19 disaster payment. The new payment rate will be automatically updated for those in the Services Australia system. These new payments recognise the significant impact the new COVID-19 delta strain is having on our communities, businesses and workers. While it's effectively the same amount for people, it's a better program than JobKeeper at this time. It's temporary, it's targeted, it's not national and it actually applies to a wider group of people and doesn't necessarily take into account a business's decline in turnover across the country, especially when workers in a business are located in different parts of the country. As the Treasurer highlighted, the disaster payment is supporting those who are unable to work and wouldn't be eligible for JobKeeper if it were in operation. For instance, these payments are open to casual workers who may not be permanent casuals. That's an area where the new payment is actually reaching more people than the payments last year. These individual payments are of course available through Services Australia.

In terms of business payments, we are making those payments in partnership with the New South Wales government, 50-50, administered by Service NSW. Those payments are open to businesses and not-for-profits in New South Wales with an annual turnover of between $75,000 and $250 million. Businesses are eligible if their turnover is 30 per cent lower than in the equivalent two-week period in 2019. Those businesses will receive 40 per cent of their New South Wales payroll payments, at a minimum of $1,500 a week and a maximum of $100,000 a week. To receive their payment, they are required to maintain their full-time, part-time and long-term casual staffing as at 13 July 2021. This continues the scheme of maintaining the connection between employers and employees and therefore supports the longer term economic recovery once our restrictions are eased. For sole traders, the payments are set at $1,000 a week. These expanded payments now cover more than 400,000 businesses, employing 3.3 million workers across New South Wales. The payment is also more substantial support for businesses to cover unavoidable costs like rent, insurance and maintenance, as well as employee costs during an extended lockdown.

When I think about these business payments and the payments to individuals, I think about constituents in my electorate and some of the people I have been talking to across the last few days. I think of Maskell Fine Jewellery in Hornsby who, while they have a significant number of customers who shop online, many customers, especially those seeking to purchase those all-important engagement rings, want to do so in person. I think of All Clear Pest Control in Mt Colah. This business relies on being able to visit homes, which are off limits as a result of the lockdown. I think of musicians like David in Hornsby who regularly plays in major productions across Sydney and for whom opportunities have stopped as a result of these lockdowns. And I think of Louise from Middle Dural and her family who have relied on FIFO income from interstate, which has dried up as a result of state border closures. All these people and thousands of others like them across the electorate will benefit from these specially targeted payments.

I also want to mention that, in addition to these payments, the government has put in place a range of other supports to help people through these difficult times, such as increased mental health support through organisations like Lifeline and Sonder and particularly supports dedicated to perinatal depression and anxiety. I think of the childcare gap fee waiver, through the federal government, in local government areas subject to stay-at-home orders. And I think of the telehealth support through Medicare and additional doses of vaccine that have been set aside for Sydney—an extra 200,000 Pfizer doses and an extra 150,000 AstraZeneca doses.

In the context of this debate, I heard the shadow Treasurer criticising the government's approach. The shadow Treasurer wanted to keep JobKeeper going, even back in March, once the country has emerged from its first phase of COVID. It's to be remembered that you can actually put in place supports for too long. What we saw once those temporary and targeted supports were removed is growth at rates that we hadn't seen since the 1960s and unemployment was at 4.9 per cent—a rate we hadn't seen for a decade. So, while it's important to have targeted and temporary arrangements like the ones before the House, you can keep them on for too long. I also note the shadow Treasurer talked about a $300 cash-splash idea to encourage people to get vaccinated. This is an idea that was developed in jurisdictions overseas that don't have our social safety net. By world standards, Australia has a generous social safety net. The payments before the House today, as with previous payments, have demonstrated that Australians look after each other in tough times. The idea from the shadow Treasurer is a half-baked idea, like Cash for Clunkers or a citizens assembly. It's a reminder of Labor's previous period in office, during the GFC, which they sent cheques to pets and dead people. This government will not be paying its fellow Australians a bribe to do things that they know it is their duty to do.

I want to raise one other issue that is being faced by my electorate at this time—that is, the difficulties people in my electorate face in relation to telecommunications. This makes lockdowns in my electorate particularly difficult. My message to Andy Penn, the CEO of Telstra, and Stephen Rue, the CEO of NBN Co, is: you really need to do a whole lot better by my constituents, especially in these difficult times. There's a school in my electorate where they can't do remote schooling online because mobile phones and the internet are unreliable in their area, where the photocopiers are running overtime preparing printed material which is then delivered to students. It puts particularly those students doing their HSC at a real disadvantage, because they can't leave home but they can't effectively work from home either.

These sorts of stories abound across my constituents. Let me share with the House the story of a family from Kenthurst with seven young children at home during this lockdown. Rather than being at home to help out, the husband of this family has to go to the city every day for work because he can't have meetings from home. They get an upload of 0.3 megabits per second on the existing ADSL service; this is an area where the NBN is not coming in until 2023. The husband contacted Andy Penn, the CEO of Telstra—they had worked together in the past—and was given a standard answer about difficult topographical areas, the slowness of the rollout and the like, but it didn't do anything to help him.

Let me give another example, of Belinda from Glenorie. She writes: 'I thought I would update you on the struggles of working from home. My tradie boys are home, which is what it is. Another house member works in the same industry but in an office.' She tried to work from home yesterday, but, with the phone balancing against a door handle to get reception and having to walk around the house with her laptop to get internet service, this was very stressful and near impossible. Getting further behind in her work, she had to go back to the office this morning. She writes: 'The plea for everyone to work from home is impossible and very stressful. To work successfully, as you and all government workers know, you need a desk, a laptop and a phone in easy reach of each other to conduct a day's work. Sitting at the top of a driveway just to answer a phone call should not be okay in 2021 in Sydney.' I couldn't agree more with Belinda from Glenorie.

I had a situation of a doctor in Hornsby who was unable to take calls for several days to operate his practice because the phones were down, a family in Pennant Hills whose internet connection was unreliable and a 91-year-old pensioner who had so many appointments cancelled on him that he developed anxiety and had to be taken to hospital, and now cannot stay at home waiting for the Telstra technician to come because his anxiety levels are so great. These are some of the examples of the terrible telecommunications that are faced by people in my electorate at this time.

Telecommunications is not a privilege; telecommunications is a right, and it's particularly a right when we are asking people to work from home. This isn't just about the lockdowns; it's about the future of work, and it's about the future of communities like mine right across the country. I note that yesterday the government released the guidelines for the Peri-Urban Mobile Program. I welcome those guidelines and I welcome that program. That is a start. We need to do so much more to fix the telecommunications situation in my electorate, and I will have more to say when I present a private member's bill to the House later this year.

Returning to the bill before the House, these supports are very welcome. They're very welcome for people in my constituency and people across Sydney and New South Wales, and others who are locked down more generally. They give people hope and confidence in a difficult time. They are the shelter from the stormy blast of COVID-19. They are an important protection for people who are locked down through no fault of their own. I commend the bill to the House.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also want to make a contribution to the Treasury Laws Amendment (COVID-19 Economic Response No. 2) Bill 2021, and, in doing so, indicate that the passage of this bill will be supported by my colleagues on this side of the House. We understand that what's contained in the bill is needed. It's needed urgently to support the affected communities, particularly those in Sydney and Brisbane who have been recently dragged into another series of lockdowns by the incompetence of this government. The government's failures are certainly large and wide when it comes down to this pandemic. Let's be clear: the only reason this bill is needed is that the government has had many failures. It's failed to bring this pandemic under control and to guide Australians out of uncertainty. What Australians need most is certainty, not continued policy changes that are simply made on the run.

This is a bill that is nothing more than a clear admission of the government's failures. Whether it be the vaccine rollout, the hotel quarantine or cutting off JobKeeper in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, the Morrison government has failed Australian businesses and Australian workers and, more importantly, their families. The bill in essence implements a number of administrative arrangements for financial support for communities recently locked down—communities such as mine in south-western Sydney—that are really feeling the pressure of this extended and harsh lockdown as it's applying throughout many areas of Sydney at the moment, particularly Western Sydney. Not only has this lockdown had a significant economic impact on our communities but, as you would appreciate, it has had dire consequences for the mental health of many. Certainly, some are suffering more than others. I know this because, like many on both sides of the House, I have had to listen to discussions time and time again over recent weeks by many individuals and businesses across our respective communities, but particularly regarding what has occurred in the last six weeks in south-western Sydney.

My electorate of Fowler, as most people in this place would understand, has significant pockets of disadvantage. As a matter of fact, the average household income in my electorate is just a little over $60,000. On top of that, we have very clear issues about affordable housing. Research conducted by the University of New South Wales shows almost half my electorate is living in rental stress. I'm painting a picture—mine is not a rich community. This pandemic and these lockdowns have only exacerbated these issues in my community, with individuals and families struggling to put food on the table, struggling to pay the rent and in certain cases struggling to fulfil their minimum obligations in respect to mortgages. I know these families are struggling. I know from talking with my own children and their families. I know the struggles that families are going through in terms of homeschooling, working from home and looking after households.

Last week, I was talking to a teacher in our community in Fowler. Her name is Raina. Raina wanted me to understand what she and others were going through. I pointed out to her that I think I do have an understanding. Like her, my daughter is a high-school teacher in Western Sydney. But Raina wanted to tell me about the effects on her and her family through this lockdown. She's a teacher. She is expected to conduct classes online for her pupils while ensuring that her own children—one of which has special needs—are being looked after, and she's helping attend to her husband's business as well. This was just one conversation, but it certainly emphasises many of the issues raised by local residents at the moment. Furthermore, while the stability of working from home and people being able to gain and maintain an income has certainly been of assistance during this pandemic, the reality is that it's just not possible in my electorate for many people because of the nature of their employment.

My community has a significant number of people who are employed in manufacturing, construction and the trades—all areas which have been at a standstill across this pandemic. I know that because two of my sons are both tradesmen working in construction. I know the impact that it's had on them because they can't travel more than five kilometres from their homes as it is. I don't have a rich electorate, but I don't have much construction going on in my electorate either. Our tradesmen, who come from Western Sydney, travel throughout Sydney to attend major building sites.

I don't think we should forget the ramifications that this pandemic is having on businesses, particularly the small businesses. If there is any growing type of employment in my area it would be in terms of very small businesses, many of them home based businesses maybe employing one or two people. But we're seeing a number of these smaller businesses now closing down, with the very real likelihood that they won't reopen—they won't survive this series of lockdowns.

For a nation that, I have to say, was doing relatively well—significantly well, even—throughout the COVID-19 outbreak and in the way that it controlled things at the time, I have to say that what we're seeing now simply highlights that, in the most part, the efforts in controlling it were the efforts of our people. That's whether it was social distancing, the way we interact with one another or even with us now saying, 'Please stay at home.' Let's face it: throughout these last 18 months the Prime Minister only had two fundamental jobs—two jobs, and both have been botched. The lockdowns that have been made necessary now were simply because of the Prime Minister's failure on vaccines and quarantine. This is costing our economy something in the vicinity of $300 million each day. The economy is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars—billions of dollars each week—and the Prime Minister simply hasn't been able to do his job. The price for this incompetence is being paid by people in our communities—by people in my community. These are people like Raina, her husband and her family.

Clearly, Scott Morrison's failures on the vaccines and quarantine are putting lives, jobs, the economy and its recovery at risk. We need a plan—a plan that's going to get us through these times and not a plan that's simply focused on the snap, harsh lockdowns that we see in our communities in Sydney at the moment. It should be a plan focused on an effective vaccine rollout and a proper quarantine situation. I know that the Prime Minister made it very clear in a series of interviews that this is not a race. I'm glad we don't say things like that to our athletes over in Tokyo at the moment! Of course it's a race, and a race we want to win, because in winning this we protect our people. But this is the race that we're not winning at the moment. As a matter of fact, we're not even at the starting blocks.

Various health experts and medical professionals are all telling us that our only pathway out of this pandemic is an effective vaccine rollout system. The Prime Minister simply has to get on with the job. On quarantine: we have a government about whose incompetence in hotel quarantine I have to say to—in fairness—that hotels are built for tourists. They're not built as quarantine centres. We've had 27 COVID leaks from hotel quarantine, numerous lockdowns and families separated from loved ones, so you'd think the government would have worked out by now that, instead of looking at tourist facilities for quarantine purposes, we need a dedicated quarantine system. We have one in Howard Springs. It has taken those opposite 18 months even to start talking to the Victorian Labor government about constructing a quarantine facility there. This has to be evidence that the vaccine rollout and hotel quarantine failures have simply let Australians down. Quite frankly, this sees the only option for many of us being these snap and harsh lockdowns which we're currently experiencing.

For my community in south-west Sydney, the lockdown is certainly having a detrimental impact on individuals, families and businesses, and that's why this legislation, which gives financial support—to help clean up the government's mess—is very much needed. I know it's needed in my community. Unlike this government, we, on this side, have a four-point plan. They may not like it, but I will go through it very briefly. We want purpose-built quarantine facilities. We want to fix the vaccine rollout. The government might want to call it a 'cash splash', or words to that effect, but we want to incentivise the rollout so that people put aside their hesitancy and actually go out and get vaccinated, because we know that the key to escaping harsh lockdowns is a properly vaccinated community. We also want to build the manufacturing capacity to secure the delivery of mRNA vaccines and to make them here in this country to serve our people. We want to deliver a targeted, thoughtful and motivating media campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated, not simply seeing someone's rolled-up sleeve and a bandaid on their shoulder. I don't think that's going to motivate too many people, at least as I see it.

With all that I have said—and we will continue to hold the government to account for their handling of this pandemic—I, nevertheless, commend the passage of this bill. I know it supports the people in my community who are in desperate need of financial assistance at the moment and the many others across the country who are experiencing the effects of these lockdowns at the moment. I support the passage of the bill.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (COVID-19 Economic Response No. 2) Bill 2021. So many people across this country are suffering so much, and, sadly, so much of that could have been avoided had the Prime Minister and this government just done their job. People understand that we are fighting a virus, but when they hear 'We are all in this together' they expect the government to act accordingly. But when we've had my home state of Victoria going through long lockdowns as part of our bit to avoid the outbreak of a third wave, and we have other states, including New South Wales, suffering through that right now and Queensland enduring its lockdown, which we hope won't last for too long, people are entitled to look at the Prime Minister and ask: Why is it that these outbreaks, many of which have come out of the quarantine facilities that were his responsibility to ensure they stayed strong, are hitting still largely unvaccinated populations and are able to spread in a way that we thought we could get on top of? Why is it that we were promised vaccination targets by the Prime Minister that never got met? Why is it that this government put all its faith in big drug corporations and hoped that they would bump us up to a favourable place in the queue, only to find out that we didn't have enough of all of the kinds of vaccines that we need and that we didn't have the ability to make all of the kinds of the vaccines that we need right here in Australia? Then, when populations, when people, get locked down and lose their job, because we're having to respond to the virus with a still largely unvaccinated population—when the government's own failures have led to these lockdowns—the government has been unwilling to step in and support people through them. As a result, people are living through these lockdowns in poverty.

If there's one thing that we've learnt from the pandemic last year it's that insecure work and casualisation and trickle-down economics spread the virus, because if people are forced to make the choice, the terrible, terrible choice, between potentially getting some money to keep food on their table and to look after themselves versus staying at home and doing the right thing, people are going to be forced to make a choice that no-one should ever have to make. So if we not only want to do the best by the whole community to get on top of the virus but want to do right by every person and make sure they don't put their lives at risk, we have to ensure that people can live above the poverty line and have the ability to pay the bills. That is especially the case because this time around in many parts of the country people don't have the protections against evictions. They might not have mortgage freezes and pay freezes like they had last time. And the cost of living is not only still there; for many people it goes up during a pandemic, because you're having to order in and get things in that you previously might have been able to go out for. So, for many people, especially those who are already living hand-to-mouth, the costs go up during a pandemic.

Last time, part of the reason that we were able to get on top of this in the way that the Prime Minister boasts about is that people didn't have to live through the pandemic in poverty. And we saw for the first time jobseekers being able to live above the poverty line. The Prime Minister was caught short because, all of a sudden, when we saw those depression era dole queues along the street—including outside the Centrelink in my area of Abbotsford, a Centrelink that the government wanted to close down and we fought them and stopped them—when we saw those incredible scenes that we haven't seen since the depression, the government was pushed to look after people. The Greens were the first party in this place to call for a wage subsidy scheme. We also saw JobSeeker go above the poverty line. The reason that had to happen is that the government was caught out, because all of a sudden all of those people queuing up to get Centrelink payments were about to find out just how terribly the government have been treating unemployed people in this country for years. So they increased unemployment assistance to above the poverty line. For many, many people around this country, that meant that they could actually live a dignified life, often for the first time in years, and that they didn't have to skip essentials like food in order to make ends meet.

But now, this time around, people are back in poverty and people who are on JobSeeker are doing it on $43 a day. Instead of just reintroducing full JobKeeper and full JobSeeker, the government is trying to hide from its mistakes by doling out what it thinks is the minimum it can possibly get away with, even if it means people will still struggle to make ends meet during the course of this pandemic. For example, if you were someone who worked seven hours a week—you worked a shift to help make ends meet—and you did that week in, week out, the government's leaving you behind. They come and say, 'Let's pass another piece of legislation to allow us to put in place a new scheme,' and the Greens will be supporting this legislation, because it is right that the government puts in place some new methods of financial support. But, again, they're coming in here and asking us to take them on face value that this time they're not going to leave anyone behind. But, when you look at what they did last time, you just can't trust them on that. Last time, a million casual workers lost out. Last time universities saw thousands and thousands and thousands of university workers sacked. In the middle of a recession, the general wisdom is that the public sector expands and employs, but this government instead cut thousands of people who work at universities. That was on this government's watch. Again, we're seeing people who are going to be predominantly women and predominantly young people, who work a bit of work here and there to make ends meet, now finding themselves being left behind yet again.

So when the government says, 'Trust us; we are going to look after everyone,' well, no, you didn't last time. Even on the payments that you have announced today and in this legislation, you're again not going to do it this time. Bring back JobKeeper. Lift JobSeeker to above the poverty line. If there's one thing this pandemic has taught us, it's that we are leaving too many people behind. No-one should live in poverty. It's time the government took this opportunity to lift everyone above the poverty line, so that there is no poverty in this rich country.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker, Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour.