Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I say from the outset that Labor will be supporting this legislation. Now is not the time to stand in the way of this package of measures, because Australians need support now. Today in suburbs across Australia there have been queues forming outside Centrelink offices, with people anxiously, and some patiently, waiting to find out what support they might have access to. It is happening in Marrickville, Darlinghurst and Burwood in Sydney; Brunswick in Melbourne; Southport on the Gold Coast; Inala in the suburbs of Brisbane and right here in Canberra. Centrelink is even trending on Twitter. These are horrific scenes on a scale that our country has not seen before, and I pray they won't be seen again after this current crisis. The people in these Centrelink queues are people we all know. They are our family members, our friends, our neighbours. Whether they are barristers, bartenders, chefs or flight attendants they are all our fellow Australians. On footpaths, people who should be working in retail, running their small businesses or seeing clients are instead looking for a lifeline. There are reports that 88,000 people in hospitality alone have lost their jobs over the last few days and another 200,000 more could be lost in the next 12 weeks. That is some 280,000 people without a pay packet. That's the equivalent of the MCG filled almost three times.

Australia is the land of the fair go. We pride ourselves on being an equal and fair society. Sadly, the coronavirus is also a great equaliser. It does not discriminate. We are all equal in the face of this crisis and we are all in this together. And whether these people are just a handful of kilometres away or on the other side of the country in Western Australia, we are here in this chamber to pass a stimulus package to help them. It is called a stimulus package but it is designed to ensure the survival of our country and our community. It is not so much a stimulus as a basic support package for Australia. It is designed to keep Australian families going.

Our frontline health and public safety officers are currently doing the same. Nurses, doctors, anaesthetists, aged-care workers and disability workers are showing up to work to fight the coronavirus and protect some of the most vulnerable in our community from it. Australian Border Force officers are enforcing border measures. Our state and territory police forces are also playing an integral and ever-increasing role. We thank them for their dedication and sacrifice, for the fact they are risking their health and wellbeing for the wider Australian community.

As I told the chamber earlier, Labor has worked constructively with the government to address the coronavirus crisis. We will give the government credit when they deserve it and apply scrutiny when it is required. However, Labor is concerned that the government's latest response has not substantially addressed some of the gaps we identified in the original stimulus and it raises additional concerns, which we will work through with the government. Foremost amongst these concerns: there is no substantial support to protect jobs and no guarantee that businesses receiving support will keep workers on. We are also gravely concerned that the coronavirus supplement may not be available for some Australian families struggling to put food on the table, particularly given there has been no change to the income test.

I can advise the Senate that the leader of the Labor Party, Anthony Albanese, met earlier this afternoon with the Prime Minister to raise the concern regarding the income-free area for a couple or family to get access to the jobseeker payment and the coronavirus supplement. I thank the Prime Minister and the government for listening and taking those concerns on board, and I look forward with anticipation to a response this evening—potentially from the government—in the form of an amendment that may seek to address this. I understand the government are considering this at this time, and I thank them for their consideration.

In addition, we are concerned that there is a lack of urgency in this support. We are concerned that payments to households, including pensioners, will arrive too late. We are deeply concerned that cashflow assistance to businesses will arrive too late and will not help otherwise viable businesses most at risk of collapse. For others—for sole traders and the self-employed—the support is just not enough. Renters have no direct support, despite the Prime Minister flagging this as a serious issue last week. I should note that Labor welcomes the announcement by banks that they would grant reprieves for mortgage holders, but we are deeply concerned about renters. Students are also highly vulnerable. There is no coronavirus supplement for students, even if they lose their job or have their hours cut. I flag that the shadow minister Linda Burney has already raised this issue with the government. There are also no provisions for the 1.6 million temporary visa holders in Australia, soon to be trapped here with varying levels of health care and no access to income support.

One of Labor's most grave concerns is the threat posed to retirement incomes and the stability of the financial system by the expansion of the early release of superannuation. Drawing from superannuation should only be done as a measure of last resort. If people are at that point now as a result of coronavirus, it is a sign that the government must do more to help them. We should not be encouraging people to draw from their superannuation at the bottom of the market. In addition, charities, food banks and organisations that provide essential services to vulnerable Australians really need more substantial support. We cannot ignore the absence of a coordinated whole-of-economy plan and the lack of sufficient support and planning for essential and strategic industries—like the airline industry, the childcare sector and the arts.

Finally we now know that there is the potential for a third economic support package. I hope the government is working on this with a sense of urgency to ensure the gaps in the existing responses are dealt with. The government must address the traffic issues on the myGov website as a matter of urgency, as well as those issues being faced at Centrelink shopfronts. As my colleagues the shadow minister for government services, Bill Shorten, and the shadow minister for families and social services, Linda Burney, said earlier today, 'It has never been more important for the social security safety net to be strong in this country.' The fact that you have people congregating to access benefits poses a further health risk to Australia as well as to the public servants working for Services Australia.

For many of the hundreds of thousands of Australians who will be left without a job as a result of this crisis, this may be the first time they have ever had to access income support. For others—and I have been in this position—they might be accessing Newstart for a short period until they can find a job, begin paying taxes again and, in turn, are able to help their fellow Australians just like they have been helped. We must acknowledge today that many people in our country are having to rely on a safety net when they've never had to do so before.

This is not the fault of any person or company. This is because we are all confronted with a health and economic crisis like we have never seen before. It is exactly why our safety net exists: to catch you when you fall, even though you have fallen through no fault of your own. We are all feeling the impact of this crisis; we are all feeling the same concerns and worries; we are all pulling together. Australia survived the recession in the early 1990s and came out stronger on the other side with 29 years of uninterrupted economic growth. We weathered the global financial crisis and, thanks to strong leadership by federal and state governments at the time, fought off the strongest headwinds to avoid falling into recession.

There will be no quick fix, though, to this coronavirus crisis. This crisis is going to be one of the most—if not the single most—difficult since the Second World War. Whilst it is testing our resolve, I have faith in Australia and, more importantly, Australians. We have fought threats to our security, our sovereignty and our fiscal stability, and we now must fight a war on two fronts: a virus that is both attacking the health of Australians and undermining our way of life.

I do flag tonight that I understand that there have been amendments already circulated from the Greens, and I appreciate the concern that they're expressing through those amendments. We believe there is merit in many of the Greens' amendments. We have raised these concerns, about people who slip through the cracks, directly with the government. But we do believe there is no point holding up this package tonight by supporting amendments that will ultimately fail in the House because the government will not support them.

We also note that section 1210B of schedule 11 of the bill gives the minister the power to make almost all of these payments by legislative instrument, and we urge the government to act on this. Without changing the legislation, students, pensioners, people on disability support payments—in fact, anyone on a payment—can be given the $550 coronavirus supplement or a supplement of another amount. New Zealanders and other temporary visa holders can also be given access to payments—usually, by the special benefit—by legislative instrument. It does not require amendment tonight. The minister also has the powers to vary the amounts of money quarantined for people on income management under existing legislation. We have raised all these issues directly with the government, both through Shadow Minister Burney, as well as directly through the Leader of the Opposition, to the Prime Minister, and, as I flagged, I understand the government is working on some amendments we anticipate later tonight.

Finally, this is not a time for a 'she'll be right' attitude. There are no excuses anymore. The risks are too high. Australia cannot become an Italy, we cannot become a United States, when it comes to coronavirus. Even if we don't get sick or don't feel sick, we—our families, our children, our community members—could still be making multiple other people sick. We could be sending our neighbours to the hospital or putting our parents or grandparents into intensive care if we spread the coronavirus around.

We can't see this horrendous virus that is hurting us and our country. But we can see what it does to people, and we must do everything we can to stop the spread of it. Wash your hands. Use hand sanitiser. Keep 1.5 metres away from other people at all times. Stay at home, regardless of your age or how at risk you might be. This social distancing, though, does not need to mean social isolation. We can FaceTime our families regularly. We can have a drink with our friends over a Zoom video conference. We can start streaming the same Netflix series together at the same time with our mates, as if we're all watching it together. We can be kind to one another, especially to those workers who are ensuring our society can still operate, like the supermarket staff, or the public transport workers or other public servants. We can exercise, to keep our minds and spirits clear. We can find new routines, as our society finds a new, and hopefully temporary, way of life.

Whilst we may not be back in this chamber for some time, the government, the parliament and all of us as elected officials will continue to work for the people of Australia. We will survive this crisis and we will do that by working together. I move:

At the end of the motion, add:

", but the Senate calls on the Government to more quickly implement the measures it is proposing, noting that, under the current proposal:

(a) the Coronavirus supplement will not begin until 27 April 2020;

(b) expanded access to the Jobseeker Payment and Youth Allowance will not begin until 27 April 2020;

(c) most people won't receive the first payment to households until April 2020 or the second payment until July 2020;

(d) pensioners won't see a boost in their income due to the change in deeming rates until 1 May 2020; and

(e) employers won't receive a cash flow boost until 28 April 2020".