Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm not quite sure what to say about that previous speech, except to say that I do thank Senator Duniam for mentioning all those things that Labor funded.

Last week in the House of Representatives we had a moment of honesty from our Prime Minister. On Tuesday, Mr Turnbull was asked in question time whether he thought a 60-year-old aged-care worker from Burnie should aspire to be an investment banker in order to get a $7,000 tax cut under the Liberal's tax policy. The Prime Minister's response was telling—it was very telling, in fact—about the attitude that this government has to people in need. Here is what Mr Turnbull said: 'The 60-year-old aged-care worker is entitled to aspire to get a better job.' This reveals a lot about our Prime Minister's attitude to working Australians: a job isn't regarded as a good job unless it pays the kind of salary that attracts a $7,000 tax cut under Mr Turnbull's plan. Not every Australian can be an investment banker or a CEO or a government minister. This country needs its nurses, it needs its teachers, it needs its early childhood educators and it needs its aged-care workers. Just because they are not paid more than $125,000 a year doesn't mean their jobs are not important. In fact, they do some of the most important jobs in the country. I ask people: would you place your elderly relative—your parent or grandparent—in the hands of an aged-care worker if you thought they didn't regard their job as important, if you thought they weren't dedicated and passionate about their job? Would you rather leave them in the hands of an investment banker? I don't think so.

It is simply outrageous that, at a time when Australia needs to increase its aged-care workforce, our Prime Minister is sending a message to those already in the workforce that their jobs aren't good enough. An aged-care worker from the north-west coast of Tasmania, Elaine, heard Mr Turnbull's comments and was justifiably shocked by them. But her response was dignified and to the point. Elaine said: 'A lot of people aspire to be carers, to look after the elderly and to be there for them. It may not pay well, but it is a job we all love. One day when he becomes aged and needs help, I hope there are still carers around for him.'

What does the Liberal candidate for Braddon, Brett Whiteley, make of the Prime Minister's comments? The day after Mr Turnbull's out-of-touch statement, I read the following in the north-west based newspaper The Advocate: 'Braddon Liberal candidate, Brett Whiteley, stood by Mr Turnbull's comments.' In other words, Mr Whiteley supports the idea that Elaine and her colleagues should aspire to get what they regard as better jobs. The 39,000 workers in the electorate of Braddon who earn less than $125,000 a year need to remember, when they go to vote on 20 July, that they have a choice. They can vote for Labor's Justine Keay, who would support a bigger, better, fairer tax cut, a tax cut that is almost double what they are being promised by this government, or they could vote for someone who thinks they are not worthy of a better tax cut unless they 'get a better job'.

I have a message for Mr Turnbull and Mr Whiteley: aged-care workers in Braddon or in the rest of Australia don't need a better job, what they need is a better government. In Braddon, they need a local member who believes that, instead of giving $17 billion to the big banks, the government should be handing back the $17 billion they have cut from schools, including the more. than $14 million to schools in Braddon in 2018 and 2019. And they need a local member who, in the interests of Braddon residents, will reject the Turnbull government's other cruel cuts and their $80 billion tax cut to big business. In the electorate of Braddon Mr Turnbull and the Liberals have cut over $700,000 from the North West Regional Hospital—the equivalent of the loss of three doctors, six nurses and 1,000 emergency department visits or almost 2,000 outpatient services. The cuts to pensions have caused 1,570 pensioners to be worse off, including 400 who lost their pension entirely. And, while those opposite have been in power, vocational education and training has suffered, with the north-west of Tasmania losing 700 apprentices. There are 7,000 retail and hospitality workers in Braddon, which means more than one in five workers are affected by the government's cuts to penalty rates. That's 7,000 workers who stand to lose up to $77 a week from their pay packets—and this government thinks they should be grateful for a $10-a-week tax cut! Voters in Braddon will go to the polls in just under five weeks time and they have been presented with a Liberal candidate who supports all these cruel cuts. The 7,000 retail and hospitality workers should know that, in 2014, when Mr Whiteley was member for Braddon he said, 'Penalty rates and wages in general for young people are becoming too expensive for small businesses to even think about putting them on.' In 2015 he said that changes to Medicare that would see some patients hit with a new $20 fee for seeing their GP were 'entirely necessary'. In 2007, when Mr Whiteley was a state member of parliament, he described the mortgage stress suffered by young Australians as 'self-inflicted'.

Another demonstration that the Liberal candidate for Braddon is out of touch is that the minister for communications described the NBN rollout to the west coast of Tasmania as Mr Whiteley's signature achievement. Despite the government's backflip on the NBN rollout to the west coast, the new fixed line service was still using Mr Turnbull's outdated copper based network rather than the 21st century fibre to the premises that Labor promised during the 2016 election. The minister promised that the region would be connected by the end of this year, but we have recently heard that the first few homes will start being connected only from the end of this year. Not only have the government broken their promise, not only are they rolling out the fixed line network to the west coast using outdated technology, but Mr Whiteley didn't even support the policy in the first place.

At a forum in March 2016—and I think my colleague Senator Urquhart attended this forum—Mr Whiteley told Queenstown residents they would have to put up with the satellite service because he had to do the same at his property. Unsurprisingly, this comment wasn't very well received by the forum. It demonstrated a few things about Mr Whiteley. First, it showed a lack of appreciation for the needs of west coast residents. That's pretty typical of the attitude of the Liberal Party to remote and regional Australia. Those opposite fail to understand that fast, reliable broadband helps to bridge the digital divide between the country and the city. It improves the competitiveness of regional Australia in the global digital economy and improves their access to essential government services. Mr Whiteley failed to understand that satellite broadband is less reliable on the west coast due to heavy rainfall and regular storms. Mr Whiteley's comments also show that he didn't really support the policy of a fixed line rollout to the west coast but was instead being dragged, kicking and screaming, to accept it.

So, according to Senator Fifield, Mr Whiteley's signature achievement was delivering an outdated copper based service to the west coast when he didn't even support the policy in the first place. I think that speaks volumes about how out of touch Mr Whiteley really is with the needs of constituents. If Mr Whiteley supports Mr Turnbull's comments about aged-care workers, then perhaps he would do well to reflect on the 2016 election and why the voters in Braddon chose not to give him a second term. Sure, there were federal issues at play. But when you tell 7,000 workers that the penalty rates they rely on to pay the rent and put food on the table are too expensive, you can't really expect those workers to give you a resounding endorsement. When you tell people it's necessary for them to be slugged another $20 to see their GP, you can't really expect them to support you either. When you tell people on the west coast that if you have to put up with the satellite service then so should they, you can't expect them to support you.

There is, of course, a candidate for Braddon who will stand up and protect the penalty rates of retail and hospitality workers; who values aged-care work; who will vote for a bigger, better, fairer tax cut for thousands of workers in Braddon earning less than $125,000 a year; and who will support reversing a $17 billion cut to Australian schools rather than giving $17 billion to Australia's big banks. That candidate is Labor's Justine Keay. She absolutely deserves to be returned as the member for Braddon on 28 July.