Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will be supporting the Social Security Amendment (Liquid Assets Waiting Period) Bill 2009. This measure will allow someone who is claiming Newstart, youth allowance, sickness allowance or Austudy to have a doubling of the liquid assets previously allowable. They were $2,500 for singles and $5,000 for others. The bill also amends the Social Security Act 1991 to exclude the surrender value of life insurance policies from the definition of liquid assets for social security purposes. Whilst the opposition supports these measures, which will provide a little more financial security to people newly unemployed, we believe the government must do far more for job seekers and school leavers than simply prepare them for unemployment.

I can remember when in the 1990s children were leaving school in conditions similar to those we are facing at the moment. Their employment prospects were slight, although nothing like that which we have seen in the last decade. Back in the 1990s, when kids left their school their career advice was focused on how to access unemployment and how to fill out the Centrelink forms. Providing some sort of safety net rather than dealing with the issues of becoming employed and the recession were what the government of the day felt should be their focus. It has been quite different since that day. During the last 10 years under the coalition government, when the kids left school their career advice was to see which job or education opportunity presented the best option for their individual futures. Under this Labor government it is again a travesty to see that we are returning to the bad old days. It brings to this place legislation that will provide a safety net, and that of course is supported by the opposition, but it is sad that that seems to be the only area in which it is making any genuine relief for people leaving school and people facing unemployment.

We are told—and everyone accepts—that there is a global economic downturn and that there are things this government could and should be doing to protect our economy and our jobs. The Prime Minister continues to remind us that he is here to end the blame game. I think it is about time we stop blaming the rest of the world for our problems, step up and actually act. When the rest of the world had their foot on the economic accelerator to stimulate the economy, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer had their feet on the brake, daring and encouraging the Reserve Bank of Australia to change interest rates. Spending cuts have happened. Because of the interest rate rise, our economy has now stalled. When we needed to protect jobs—when we needed to do something about the economy—the government had a political strategy and took its eye off the ball, which is why we are now in a position of having to create a safety net.

We are now spending billions of dollars on poorly-thought-out cash giveaways in an attempt to get our economy back to where it was and to protect jobs. Unfortunately, many pundits and economists around the world are saying it is too little, too late. The promise in December was that the $10 billion package was going to create 75,000 new jobs. It has now been exposed through time and fact simply as a political stunt. Those on this side suspected this, but we gave them the benefit of the doubt. There are a number of figures that demonstrate that it was a stunt. The ABS labour force figures for February show a four per cent increase in unemployment for the month, pushing up the overall unemployment rate to 5.2 per cent. Tragically, that number is rising.

It is quite clear that the current government is absolutely clueless when it comes to managing our economy and protecting and supporting businesses, which are absolutely essential to creating jobs. The only plan the government appears to have now is to look back to the nineties—‘What did we do last time we created a horrible hole and a recession? What we can do is to look sympathetic and stitch up a bit of a safety net.’ I think Australians deserve more. We should be investing in job creation programs and infrastructure that will improve our competitiveness in the future, and that is all about jobs, jobs, jobs. Of course, we are going to support these measures as they are going to assist the refugees of another Labor recession. It is our policy—and one that we urge the Rudd government to follow—that government investment and focus must be on future capacity and productivity so Australians are not faced with unemployment and the need to live off savings, missing out on what I consider a fundamental right for Australians: the opportunity to make a contribution through employment. They need to learn and study, and, in any way they can, contribute to the Australian community. If you are of working age, obviously this is something that you would like to do, but this is an opportunity that so many Australians will not have. Whilst we will be supporting this safety net for refugees of the incompetence of the federal government, we really believe that it is high time that the government stop blaming the rest of the world for their woes and get on with making Australia a better place with more opportunities for employment.