Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak on this very important economic package tonight. Labor has been constructive from the outset and will continue to be constructive. We have offered to work with the government in a bipartisan fashion to ensure we do everything we can to protect the livelihoods of all Australians. This includes Labor being supportive of the government's first and second economic responses to COVID-19 which we've seen in the last week or so. However, there are aspects of the government's package that we do have concerns about.

We are concerned that there is a lack of urgency, we're concerned that there are gaps in support and we're concerned that the packages do not go far enough to protect jobs. However, we have made it clear that Labor will not stand in the way of the package of measures that is before us today because it is very clear that our economy and Australians need support now. We do know that there's potential for a third package, and I hope that the government is working on this with a sense of urgency to ensure that some of the gaps in the existing responses are dealt with. To meet the scale of the challenge that is before us, the government's response must be large enough, must be implemented quickly enough and must be targeted enough to protect and support the livelihoods of Australians and prevent more job losses, more business failures and a more serious economic downturn. These were the three tests that the Prime Minister set himself at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Australians need the government to do a better job getting this support out the door than they have done with the drought relief, the bushfire relief and the original stimulus. The Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus Bill 2020 and related bills seek to implement the two responses announced by the government to date—the initial $17.6 billion package, announced just over a week ago, and the $66 billion package announced over the weekend just gone.

The package contains a number of additional measures, including the delay to the Intergenerational report; the routine adjustment to the thresholds of the Medicare levy and Medicare levy surcharge; the ability for ministers to temporarily defer the sunsetting of legislation where the sunset date falls due during a period when the parliament may not be sitting; and the changes to the Australian Business Growth Fund which we have agreed with the government. There are also appropriation bills for this financial year that deal with the implementation of both the economic and the health responses to COVID-19. This includes $1.3 billion for health, as part of the response to COVID-19, including $113.5 million for the establishment and operation of dedicated respiratory clinics and $700 million for the purchasing of personal protective equipment for the National Medical Stockpile. It also includes $437 million for infrastructure relating to the airlines package announced by the government a few weeks ago. We'll support all of these measures.

Labor is concerned that the Morrison government's latest response has not substantially addressed some gaps we identified in the original stimulus and raises additional concerns, including no substantial support to protect jobs and no guarantee that businesses receiving support will keep workers on; the newly announced $550 coronavirus supplement may not be available for some Australian families struggling to put food on the table, particularly given there's been no change to the income test; the payments to households, including to pensioners, may arrive too late, with the second $750 payment not due to hit bank accounts until mid-July; cash flow assistance to business will arrive too late and will not help otherwise viable businesses most at risk of collapse; and the first boost in cash flow payment isn't set to arrive until the end of April, and a second payment won't occur until the end of July.

Other concerns include the lack of more substantial support for sole traders and the self-employed to help them stay in business; the absence of any direct support for renters, despite the Prime Minister flagging this as a serious issue last week; and no coronavirus supplement for students even if they lose their part-time job or have their hours cut. We note that the expansion of early release superannuation risks undermining retirement incomes and compromising financial system stability and should be considered only as a last resort, and that the $1 billion regional and community support fund, despite the bill that is before us today which seeks to legislate for the fund, still lacks significant detail, which is a worrying sign given this government's track record at these types of funds. Our concerns include the lack of more substantial support for charities, including food banks and organisations that provide essential services to vulnerable Australians; the absence of a coordinated whole-of-economy plan; and a lack of sufficient support and planning for essential and strategic industries including, but not limited to, the airline industry, the childcare sector and the arts. These are all concerns that Labor has raised publicly, consistently and, I think, in a way that urges the government to consider these and respond to them as part of this unfolding economic crisis.

COVID-19 and the economic crisis that surrounds it demand urgency, scale and coordination, but the Morrison government's initial and subsequent responses, we believe, have come too late, have been too slow and have too many gaps. Businesses are already closing, workers are already being laid off and many vulnerable Australians are at serious risk. The level of anxiety across the community is enormous. We've all been seeing the images of people in the shops, worried. And the only thing around this anxiety that many of them can control at the moment is shopping and making sure they have enough food and supplies for their family, because they feel out of control about everything else that is happening around them. And we are asking them to accept a huge amount of change to the way that we have lived our lives for so many years—for all of our years, really. So it's no surprise that people are anxious. As leaders, this government needs to respond to that anxiety. We're seeing the lines outside Centrelink and the websites crashing, and we're hearing the stories on the street as you walk around, with people saying: 'I've had to let all my casuals go. There was nothing I could do. I did it a month ago.' Many of the coffee shops in Canberra were telling me they let their casuals go a month ago. This is causing so much disruption and concern across the community that it's confronting for all of us who never thought we would witness this kind of dislocation and disruption in our lives.

With queues outside Centrelink offices and the myGov website crashing, we have to ensure that Centrelink services, both online and in person, are working now when Australians need them the most. I am not in any way reflecting on the capabilities of Centrelink staff or staff across the Australian Public Service more broadly, who have been exemplary in their response considering the number of job losses they've absorbed in the last six years. The work that they have been doing, including those from Foreign Affairs and Trade and the officials who went into Wuhan to help evacuate Australians—these are public servants who always get a pretty negative rap about cushy jobs, being well paid and not being at the front line. So many of our Public Service are at the front line, and those that aren't are supporting the ones that are. They're developing the policy, they're coordinating the response and they're advising the government what to do in this crisis. We should acknowledge that effort today. It has been enormous, off the back of the bushfires and then straight into this. Labor certainly wants to thank them and put that on the record. Centrelink need additional staff. There is no way they will be able to do this. Services Australia—I think there is a response from the government around that—need to make sure that staff are protected while they do their job and that they are also given much greater capacity to deliver the services that so many more Australians are going to need. This is important particularly for Australians that have never had to navigate this system before; navigating this system isn't part of the way they've lived. Centrelink needs to be significantly ramped up and urgently ramped up.

Our priority is to support jobs and help Australian workers, businesses and communities through this difficult time, and particularly ensure that vulnerable Australians are supported. We understand that people are anxious and they are looking for leadership and they are looking for consistency in the messages they are getting. I think they are looking for understanding, too, about how difficult this time is. I think, for the most part, people are genuinely trying to do the right thing. Where they aren't, of course, that needs to be dealt with. Labor will continue to be supportive, constructive and responsible, and will work with the government where we can, as we are doing to facilitate the passage of these packages today. We will keep working with the government to point out where there are gaps or where key groups have been left out. We will inject a sense of urgency where it is absent or lacking. On the point of urgency, I note the second reading amendment which has been moved by Senator Keneally, which goes to the points we have all made about how some of this support will not reach people for some weeks or months, and for many that is going to be a very long wait.

I'm also going to foreshadow a second reading amendment in my name that covers issues surrounding superannuation—in particular, the early access to super measure that is proposed in the package of bills. On superannuation, I want to point out that it was Labor, of course, that created a universal, world-class superannuation system, and we very much believe that every Australian deserves a dignified retirement. Labor notes that drawing down on super, as it's proposed, though the early access to superannuation measure, when the market is at historic lows will have negative implications for most Australians. We seriously believe it should be an option of last resort. I would note that in the other place we moved some amendments, around trying to improve this particular measure, which the government didn't agree to. We're not repeating those amendments here, in the interests of getting this package done, but we believe a second reading amendment is warranted. Labor also calls on the government to ensure that Australians have access to the right information and advice in times of financial hardship, and also that people who do access these early access provisions are being provided with the right advice. We're calling on proper consultation with all stakeholders to ensure the measure does not have significant negative impacts on the retirement outcomes of Australians.

We take our responsibilities here as legislators and leaders extremely seriously. In times like these, Australians are very rightly looking to those in authority for leadership and guidance, which is why Labor have taken the approach we have in recent times. It's why we have been supportive and attempted to act in a bipartisan and constructive manner. It's also why we have been pointing out the gaps where we see them. Our support for the legislation today does not in any way mean that we think everything is perfect, as I've outlined already. However, what Australians need right now is the support that is provided by this package, and that is why we support the legislation today.

I would also like to place on the record for those senators who aren't able to speak tonight, and our colleagues who aren't here, our thanks, admiration and gratitude to everyone working out there to help deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. I've already mentioned staff across the Public Service and in all our state and territory public services, many of which have had to regear to focus on this crisis, not least of which are the staff in our health system and the community service system who are having to respond to, I think, extremely distressing workplaces which are only going to get more difficult to work in in coming months. Whether it be our health professionals, aged-care workers, workers in supermarkets, or anyone else involved, you have our support and everlasting thanks for what you are doing.