Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution to the debate on the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Jobkeeper Payments) Amendment Bill 2020. This bill allows for the Treasurer to extend JobKeeper and make rules regarding the rate of pay and eligibility until the 28 March 2021. It also allows the minister for social security to extend the JobSeeker payment beyond the end of December, and I say 'thank goodness'. The capacity to do that always should have been there, because we know the impacts of this pandemic are going to last.

When the announcement was made about extending JobKeeper to March next year, the same should have been for the JobSeeker payment. Having said that, it doesn't mean that the minister will make that extension. We are deeply, deeply concerned about the uncertainty that those on JobSeeker are facing right now, because not only are they going to see a $300 cut per fortnight in just under a month's time; they also don't know what is going to happen to them after December. For us, it is essential that further support is provided to Australians doing it tough. This pandemic has not just exposed just how flawed our social security system is but has exposed the inequality that exists in our country. This pandemic very strongly risks extending that inequality, because we know that different groups and different cohorts are being disproportionately impacted by this pandemic, such as young people, women, older workers.

This bill does a number of things, including create a new class of employers called 'legacy employers'. These are employers who received JobKeeper between March and September this year but will be ineligible from September as they have recovered and will no longer meet the turnover tests of 30 per cent or 50 per cent decline in turnover. Although they will not receive the JobKeeper payment, legacy employers only need to demonstrate a 10 per cent decline in turnover in order to access the new flexibility measures established by this bill. Legacy employers will be able to direct employees to vary or reduce their hours of work and alter the location, duration and duties of their work. Workers who were depending on JobKeeper will now have this payment ripped away and face losing over 40 per cent of their income for up to six months. In other words, it is condemning people to uncertainty, to the risk of losing hours and the risk of actually descending into poverty.

People who work for businesses that have experienced a 10 per cent decline in turnover have no guarantee of minimum income, even though their employer is better off, comparatively. Again, this is disproportionately impacting certain cohorts of Australians. People are going to be left behind. The government has not made the case for giving employers extraordinary powers to cut their workers' hours and wages whilst leaving workers without any guaranteed source of income. If the government believes that employers are so in need of support, the government should do something about it; these employers should not be funded by cuts to workers' wages. We can pass the extension of JobKeeper and the flexibility measures for people who continue to receive JobKeeper without creating the new class of legacy employers, which amounts, in our book, to corporate welfare. The Greens will move to excise this appalling legacy employers amendment and their powers from the bill.

The government has announced their intention to cut the JobKeeper payment and introduce tiered payments. This will effectively mean that low-paid workers do not get paid a living wage. Slashing payments for underemployed low-income workers in insecure work will predominantly impact women and young people. The government apparently will not hesitate to kick workers when they are down and throw vulnerable workers off a financial cliff in the midst of this pandemic and recession. While this is not in the current bill, we must use this opportunity to prevent cuts for low-income workers and the establishment of a two-tiered system. The Greens will be moving amendments to prevent tiered payments, to ensure low-income workers are protected.

It should be noted that this bill does nothing to protect the millions of workers who have been left behind by the government during this pandemic. The government continues to deny millions of workers access to a wage subsidy they so desperately need and forces casuals, temporary visa holders, and childcare and university workers into unemployment. Again, people are being left behind. The Greens will be moving amendments to extend eligibility for JobKeeper to the millions of workers who have been left behind by this government and are struggling and depending on our hardworking social services and community sector.

As I said at the beginning of my contribution, this bill also makes JobSeeker changes. The bill extends the period over which the social security minister can make legislative instruments to change the coronavirus supplement and related payments. This means the minister has the power to extend the coronavirus supplement until 28 March 2021. This change will bring a small amount of relief to the 2.3 million Australians receiving the coronavirus supplement. However, I want to make it clear that there are no guarantees that the minister will actually use this power to extend the coronavirus supplement from December until March. The minister has repeatedly failed to commit that the JobSeeker payment will not go back to $40 a day. I have asked on a number of occasions and have received no such assurance. It is deeply distressing to Australians that, in fact, this issue is still not resolved. As I said earlier, there is no way that anybody could foresee a future where you could manage to survive on $40 a day.

We already know that the government has plans to wind back income support payments. The coronavirus supplement is being reduced by $300 a fortnight from 25 September. This means that 2.3 million people currently receiving the coronavirus supplement will see cuts to their income, taking them below the poverty line. The government is deliberately dropping all those people below the poverty line. I am also extremely worried that the 1.1 million children who are living in these households will have their incomes cut in September. What does that mean for child poverty in this country?

The ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods estimates that the number of people in poverty will increase by 740,000 when the rate of JobSeeker reduces in September. The researchers also found that the coronavirus supplement led to dramatic reductions in poverty rates, poverty gaps and housing stress amongst households who relied mostly on the JobSeeker payment. The poverty rate of this group was 67 per cent before COVID-19, but the supplement reduced the poverty rate to 6.8 per cent, thereby clearly demonstrating the value of having an adequate social security payment.

Not only is the government taking $300 per fortnight from people; millions of unemployed people still don't have certainty about the rate of payment after December. This lack of certainty around the rate of JobSeeker payment means that people are unable to plan for their future, causing a great deal of anxiety and contributing even further to people's poor mental health, which is already adversely affected by this pandemic. Australians are incredibly distressed about their income dropping in September and then again in December. We are going to see a lot of hardship and people defaulting on their mortgages or having to leave their rental properties because of the choices this government is making.

I'm incredibly worried about what will happen to Australians on low incomes when the supplement is cut. We will see people having to borrow money and getting deeper and deeper into debt. This is particularly true for those cohorts that are particularly affected, such as young people, women and older people. The numbers of people on the JobSeeker payment for over-50s in the three cohorts 50 to 55, 55 to 60 and 60-plus have more than doubled. All of them have more than doubled. If you're over 60, I'm deeply concerned about your future and your ability to find work. This government is condemning them to poverty by taking $300 a fortnight from them, further undermining their ability to have an adequate quality of life as older people moving into retirement.

In the middle of a pandemic and a recession, amid so much uncertainty, we should be providing an adequate, livable income to unemployed Australians. Not only is this obviously good for them, keeping them out of poverty; it also helps stimulate our economy. As far as the ministry is concerned, the JobSeeker payment will be dropping back to $40 a day after 31 December, because the government and the minister will not clarify and will not commit, hand on heart, that it will not drop to $40 a day. This is at the exact same time that our effective unemployment rate is predicted to reach 13 per cent. The $350 coronavirus supplement has had a huge impact on the lives of unemployed Australians. It has brought JobSeeker above the poverty line. Because I understand there has already been a second reading amendment moved, I foreshadow that I will be moving a second reading amendment about the impact of lowering the coronavirus supplement and calling for the current rate to be maintained.

Last week, ACOSS asked community service workers what kind of impact the coronavirus supplement is having on the lives of people they help. A team leader from a housing and homelessness service said, 'Extra payments for COVID-19 meant people could pay for accommodation and to eat.' Imagine that. A child, youth and family service worker said that the double JobSeeker payment has meant that, for the first time in years, very low-income single mothers have been able to buy new winter clothes, replace broken white goods and repair cars. A practitioner from another housing and homelessness service said, 'We work with rough sleepers who have not, as yet, been negatively affected by COVID-19. We are more likely to see an increase in rough sleeping if the additional funds for JobSeeker and JobKeeper cease and people from the private market lose their accommodation.'

For the first time, many people in our community on JobSeeker have been able to cover the essentials without needing to make difficult choices. We should all have the opportunity to afford fresh food such as fresh fruit and vegetables, turn on the heating and buy essential medications. We cannot go back to $40 a day. As I said, this is why I'll be moving a second reading amendment to call on the government to retain the full $550 COVID supplement and increase JobSeeker permanently.

I particularly want to point out that people on the DSP or carer payment are still missing out. I'm very disappointed to see that additional support for people on the disability support pension or carer payment is absent from the government's plans. Since March, the Greens have been campaigning alongside the sector to have the DSP or carer payment recipients included in the coronavirus supplement. The government keeps telling us disabled people and carers were excluded because they don't receive working age payments. I can tell you that people on the DSP or carer payment do work and have lost work from COVID-19. Data from DSS shows that around 43 per cent of people on the DSP have had their hours reduced compared to this time last year.

Disabled people and their carers are doing it extremely tough, and they have been since the start of the pandemic, experiencing higher costs when it comes to groceries, food deliveries, transport and PPE. It's likely that disabled people and carers will face longer periods of lockdown and quarantining and will return to work later because of the nature of COVID-19. I once again call on the government to provide the $550 corona supplement to people on the DSP or carer payment. We need to acknowledge the thousands of Australians on the DSP or carer payment who need the extra support during this crisis.

This bill fails to close those gaps that are widening in our community because of COVID-19. It fails to address the critical need for income support above the poverty line. It fails to address the fact that those on the DSP or carer payment are missing out. I want our government to be supporting every Australian who needs help through this crisis. We have a responsibility to do this—