Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know I have spoken on a number of occasions in this place in relation to COVID-19 and the impact that it's had on the country and on my home state of Tasmania. But I think we also have to highlight the good things that have come out of this pandemic and the experiences that people are having. I actually think people in Tasmania are being kinder to each other, and I hope that doesn't change when we emerge from this pandemic.

We know that our economy is suffering. We know that there are in excess of 30,000 Tasmanians that have either lost their jobs or are underemployed. We know small business is doing it tough. We know our tourism sector is doing it really tough, and we know what the shutdown of the airline sector has done to our local economy. When we had the outbreak down the north-west coast of Tasmania, that really impacted on the entire state. People were scared. People are still scared about the impact and about whether there is a real risk, once Tasmania's borders are reopened, of a second wave of the pandemic and whether there will be a worse strain that hits our shores. These are all real concerns that people have in their community.

But there have been some really good things that have happened. I think there is now a greater appreciation of people who work in retail. The experience that our retail workers had, particularly in the early weeks of this pandemic, during the panic buying at the supermarkets, was proven to be unnecessary. The abuse that those retail workers had to endure was unfortunate. I do think, though, that people, at least in my home state, have re-evaluated people that have been on the front line, whether it's the postie delivering the mail or the retail workers in the supermarkets or in other outlets. If you're a truckie, we've had to rely on you to ensure that our supplies come through in a timely manner. I think there's been a recognition that, really, we are all reliant on one another.

While there have been some good things, there have also been some bad decisions made. In Tasmania, we didn't ensure, for instance, that there was enough PPE in our hospital systems. We know we have certainly missed that opportunity in the aged-care sector, and I've spoken many times about that. We've had to fight very hard to get pandemic leave, and we know that still isn't available for all workers. With JobKeeper, Labor had been on about that for quite some time before the government got on board, but they did get on board, so I give the government credit for that. We have to ensure, though, that JobKeeper is there for as long as we need it in our communities.

With JobSeeker, it is really tough. There were aspects of the Tasmanian economy that were really doing quite well before the pandemic; I give credit where credit's due. But it is going to be tough, going forward, because the effects of this pandemic aren't going to be over in a matter of weeks and months. It will be years. It could be a decade. It's going to take a long time to rebuild and regain confidence. But the most important thing we can do as elected representatives of the Australian community is to make sure that people feel safe—whether it's our older Australians, our older Tasmanians in aged care or in residential care, or the most vulnerable, the people that are living on the street, homeless. We have to give all of these people the reassurance that the Commonwealth government is there and doing the right thing by them.

I know that politics is politics; people will come into this chamber and accuse each other of trying to make political points. At the end of the day, I actually believe that everybody in this chamber is here trying to do the best that they can. But we do have to acknowledge when there is a need for the government of the day to step up. There are many occasions and many areas of policy—and aged care is one of those—where we have offered for the last seven years to work with them to address the crisis in aged care. It is now out of control.

We have a royal commission that the Prime Minister has used to stall having to resource this sector in the way it needs to happen. We are always willing to sit down and talk to the government to resolve this aged-care crisis.