Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) Clause 5, page 3 (after line 19), after subclause (3), insert:

(3A) The legislative rules must require that the terms of any loan subject to a guarantee granted to a financial institution under subsection (1) include a requirement that a SME entity to which a loan is to be made not make any employee of the SME redundant for the duration of any guarantee granted to the financial institution under that subsection.

This goes to the point that the Australian Greens have consistently been making today: whether it relates to big corporates or to SMEs, the government should be getting some quid pro quo here rather than just handing over cash willy-nilly with no guarantees in regard to employment. Qantas were given a significant share of the $715 million that was given to airlines, and within days they had sacked 20,000 people. We keep privatising the obscene profits and socialising the significant losses. We need to make sure that doesn't continue.