Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens support this disallowance and specifically I want to talk to supporting disallowing item 4 of these regulations from the coronavirus economic response package. We also support the disallowance of items 5 to 7. My colleague Senator Faruqi spoke extensively to this in her own disallowance last week. I associate myself with the remarks she made about those items which were related to the higher education sector.

There was a time when the coalition liked to talk about 'team Australia'. But they're not talking about being a team now that we're in a crisis. Now that Australian workers are in the lurch, the coalition are back-pedalling as fast as they can. Now when it really matters, people in Australia who are doing it tough are finding out whose side the coalition is really on. This government might be willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to a former mining executive to fly around the country but they're not willing to support Australians who are doing it tough and communities that are struggling.

The particular workers that I want to talk about tonight are some of the workers in the aviation industry. We know the aviation industry is in a bit of difficulty at the moment with this pandemic, because, as we know, most people aren't flying. There are very few flights either domestically or internationally. We're in a situation, as states lift their restrictions, where we may see an increase in domestic flights, but international flights are not likely to return to the levels that we saw pre crisis in a particularly short amount of time—if, indeed, they ever do. So we've got a situation with aviation workers. There are tens of thousands of them who are out of work because of the pandemic. These are just the types of workers that the government's JobKeeper package was designed to support—people who, because their industry was being badly affected by this pandemic, were not able to be in work.

But we've got a particular cohort of workers who aren't being supported: the workers employed by dnata. Before this crisis, dnata handled 300,000 tonnes of cargo and supported more than seven million passengers. There are 5,500 workers, and the government is not supporting them. The government is also not supporting the hardworking workers of Cabin Services Australia, who do all the cleaning of cabins and preparation of flights across the country. I met some of these workers out on the lawns of Parliament House last week, and they could not understand why they were being singled out. They are proud of their work. As politicians, we fly around the country a lot. Every time we have flown on a flight, it's those workers at Cabin Services Australia who have done the hard work and cleaned the cabins to make sure that they are safe and clean for us to fly in.

So why aren't these workers being supported by JobKeeper? Because their companies are owned by a foreign government. But that makes no difference to them. In fact, in the case of dnata it's only a matter of different corporate takeovers now that the company is owned by a foreign government. It makes no difference to the workers. They are employed here in Australia and have been paying taxes here in Australia. They are just like all the other Australian workers who are being supported by JobKeeper. By supporting these workers with JobKeeper, we're not propping up foreign governments; we are supporting Australians who are out of work during this pandemic. Not supporting these workers has a terrible impact on them, their families and communities around the country; it's a huge impact. Supporting them means food on plates, mortgage payments and being able to pay the bills in the midst of this crisis. This pandemic is hard enough for people without the coalition throwing workers under a bus. The tragedy is that there is a real opportunity for this government to act and to make a real difference in people's lives. The government could step up and provide support, and support these workers in this crisis.

The Greens believe that we need to have a serious look at the sustainability of the aviation industry after the COVID pandemic, or whatever situation we're in as the COVID virus plays its way out throughout the world, and that we need to have a serious look at aviation in the context of the climate crisis as well. But leaving workers in the lurch on the arbitrary basis of their company being owned by a foreign government is not the way to do this.

The Greens believe that we should take action domestically to ensure that we have two viable airlines connecting up our rural communities as we come out of this crisis and to ensure that all existing workers in the aviation sector are looked after. We support the calls from the Transport Workers Union for a national plan for aviation, and I want to thank the Transport Workers Union for the work that they have been doing to try to support the workers in this industry. The TWU are calling for a two-airline model; government equity in the airlines to ensure long-term stability; accessible and affordable services for regions; protection and promotion of regional jobs; JobKeeper for all aviation workers; workers to get the same pay for the same job; safe supply chains and regulation of airports; and capped CEO salaries. We support those calls. This is a crisis, and it requires a real response from government that doesn't leave people behind. It requires a response that doesn't allow one of our domestic carriers to go into administration. The Greens are calling for the government to, if required, take steps for public ownership of Virgin as a step to deal with this crisis. However, of course the support that the government is giving should come with conditions. We think it should support worker representation on the board and no bonuses for executives.

Public ownership is an important way for government to support workers through this crisis, making sure that an aviation crisis doesn't exacerbate the jobs crisis that we face. Public ownership is also a way for government to support airlines in tackling the environmental challenges we face. In the long term, airlines must reduce their emissions if we're going to stay within our carbon budget and have a safe future on this planet so we can continue to live on it. Any public ownership stake must ensure that airlines live up to their commitments to reduce emissions under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. We've heard reports that airlines are lobbying to have their targets made easier, even as they ask for government support.

So let's be clear. Government needs to be supporting the aviation industry. Governments must support workers through a national aviation plan that includes public ownership when necessary. It must ensure that airlines meet their emission targets. But in the context of this disallowance tonight, what we must ensure is that workers are not left behind—that hardworking workers in the aviation industry, who have been paying their taxes and working hard, like every other Australian worker, deserve to be supported like other Australian workers have with the JobKeeper scheme. For that reason, the Greens strongly support this disallowance motion tonight.