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

I rise to speak on the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Jobkeeper Payments) Amendment Bill 2020. This bill seeks to extend the ability to make JobKeeper payments until 28 March 2021. The Labor Party supports this extension of JobKeeper, as it is crucial in providing the support Australians need in order to recover from the co-occurring health and economic pandemic. However, grouped with this amendment are additional provisions that give no clear understanding of how companies can implement cuts to hours and wages. We feel that this bill can be used as a Trojan Horse to introduce permanent changes that allow employers to, with minimum consultation, alter their employees' condition of employment.

The Coronavirus Economic Response Package passed by parliament on 8 April this year amended the Fair Work Act by inserting a new part that would temporarily enable employers to issue JobKeeper enabling directions. The directions were intended to provide for increased flexibility around employees' hours of work via new enabling stand-down directions, performance of duties and location of work. However, these directions also enabled employers and employees to make agreements for increased flexibility around annual leave and days and times of work. The Labor Party criticised this policy and as part of negotiations with the ACTU the government agreed that the legislation would specify that the amendments would expire in September.

The government's decision to extend JobKeeper for an additional six months means they also want to extend the JobKeeper enabling direction provisions. The bill does that at the same time as introducing a new category of so-called JobKeeper flexibility legacy employers. Legacy employers are those who will no longer be eligible for JobKeeper but who, according to the government, remain in distress. To qualify for this, employers must prove a mere 10 per cent drop in average business activity. These legacy employers will be able to access the extended flexibility arrangements. Why is the Morrison government giving companies that have been determined to no longer need financial support these additional rights? Well, the introduction of these thresholds is at least a concession to the public arguments Labor has made with respect to not extending the flexibility arrangements to businesses that have completely recovered.

However, this rings alarm bells, as these types of flexibility arrangements are often ones that employer groups have wanted for a long time, regardless of the pandemic. These WorkChoices-like policies mean that the Morrison government can sneak in this controversial legislation under the veil of a pandemic. This would have otherwise been subjected to lengthy scrutiny and negotiations. Policy such as this is something the Liberals have failed to introduce in the past 20 years and now, bundled with the JobKeeper extension, it will silently pass through.

Employer groups will claim that these provisions have worked so well during the pandemic that they should be retained indefinitely. The claim will be made that they allow businesses to employ more workers, but we cannot ignore that this would be on the basis that they were able to reduce and change workers' existing hours, duties or location of work without any notice. This is effectively eroding the rights of workers. This legislation provides a provision which allows legacy employers to reduce employees' ordinary work hours, despite employers having to commit to a minimum of 60 per cent of normal working hours. This would result in many low-paid workers previously receiving JobKeeper experiencing a substantial pay cut. This is just another example of the Morrison government not looking out for those who are most vulnerable, leaving people behind in this pandemic.

Thankfully, the one change to the existing flexibility arrangements is that annual leave provisions will be repealed. The annual leave provisions enabled employers to request that employees take annual leave. The Labor Party condemned this provision, and so it has welcomed the improvement.

With an additional 400,000 Australians expected to lose their jobs before Christmas, the unemployment rate at 7.5 per cent—a 22-year high—and people clearing out their superannuation accounts just to be able to cover their costs of living, it is clear that the economy is not going to go back to normal. Mr Prime Minister, there will be no snap back. Removing the substantial JobKeeper support from the economy without a jobs plan is irresponsible. It's not the plan to begin the winding back that assistance before many people who would otherwise be unemployed are currently not because of JobKeeper. We need to keep it going for as long as it is needed.

I would like to touch on some of the areas where there is still real concern. The JobKeeper wage subsidy proposed by the Morrison government was never expanded to support local government employees. That would have been very beneficial in the Tasmanian community. People who were casual employees, visa holders and local government employees still do not currently qualify for the payment. These workers were left to fend for themselves by this government. Despite moving amendments to this effect in the House of Representatives and the parliament, the Morrison government did not support these workers. We will keep fighting on this side of the chamber for all Australians. The Treasurer has the ability to expand the coverage of JobKeeper to more workers. It really is only a stroke of a pen. The Prime Minister was happy to foist this issue onto premiers, arguing that local government was their responsibility.

They do not want to take responsibility for anything. That is a hallmark. That's what defines this government—no responsibility, no accountability, no transparency, just spin. That's what they are about—making announcements without delivering. There are others who have been working really hard to protect their communities: the leaders and state premiers around this country. But what do we see, day in, day out, in this chamber? The government trying to blame Premier Dan Andrews in Victoria for the COVID-19 impacts on the aged-care sector. In my home state, as it is around the country, local government workers are fundamental as key people working within our local communities. They are very much in need of support and deserving of any support in relation to JobKeeper.

If we want to look at some other areas of real concern that affect my home state, there is also the aviation sector. The government has left that sector high and dry, without any support. We have seen tens of thousands of airline workers from Qantas and Virgin losing jobs without any support from this government, which means the impact on Tasmania's tourism has been devastating. We know that the state economy is going to be badly impacted by this COVID-19 pandemic. Tasmanians, if and when we see more flights out of our own states, or out of my own airport in Launceston, know airfares will be expensive. All of this goes to the detriment of the Tasmanian community.

Let's turn our minds to the universities. This government has, in fact, given them no support at all. We have seen university lecturers, people working there, losing their jobs and, at the same time, this very government is making it harder and harder for people to be able to go to university, increasing the costs of courses. Again, this is having a huge impact on my community in Tasmania, and I know it will have a huge impact around the rest of the country.

This Prime Minister has no real plan to get us out of this pandemic, to rebuild our economy, to give confidence to the Australian community that he is a prime minister of action, a man with vision and a man who will lead his government, be accountable and provide the transparency that this community needs. That sort of leadership is what is needed now. Victorians are turning to Dan Andrews as their Premier for that leadership, as they are in Western Australia, in Queensland, and even, might I say, in Tasmania, where a Liberal Premier is being responsive to what his community is telling him. What we need from this Prime Minister is for him to be able to step up, be accountable, take some responsibility for the failings, and do something about them.