Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Well you should know, then! You should know that these packages are not doing anything that you're trying to pretend is happening. The people have been here, going around and talking to parliamentarians, pleading with them, telling them that what is being offered, whether it is with good intentions or not, is not working. Many of these people have lost 100 per cent of their income. Others have lost up to 80 per cent of their income. People have lost jobs because there isn't that income. That's what's happening. They have said that the loans that are on offer will not be able to help them. The reason why that is is quite simple. If you're offering loans to people they are just piling on debt, because there's no revenue to pay off the debt. Labor believes that is not right. It's okay to come in here and say that you've been talking to them, but you obviously haven't been listening.

What Labor has been saying to this government is that it has to listen to the people who are affected, listen to the communities that are affected and make sure that the assistance packages actually work, because they're not at the moment. The money is not getting through. We know that. People and communities are telling us that. It's really not very hard to actually get in there and fix up the way that you've put forward this assistance and add more, because, quite frankly, if there's not an immediate help then— (Time expired)