Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Jobkeeper Payments) Amendment Bill 2020—a bill that offers, on one hand, a reduction in JobKeeper payments and, on the other hand, an extension of extreme and extraordinary industrial powers to companies without the need for them. The government has backed down on some earlier proposals, but there is no compromise—it is still a deliberate belting of secure work with the added insult of no JobKeeper payments.

COVID-19 is a once-in-a-generational shock to our economy, to our healthcare system and to our society. Just look at some of the few facts. Underemployment is at 7.5 per cent—more than one million without work. Alarmingly, close to 20 per cent of people are either unemployed or underemployed. Roy Morgan reports that consumer confidence was three-quarters of what it was this time last year. The government's response should be leadership. It should be working in a bipartisan way—a way that should be above politics. During Australia's last economic crisis—the global financial crisis—that was how Labor operated. It showed leadership, it acted quickly and it saved this country from a recession. Instead, this Prime Minister and his government have been found wanting. He has done as he always does but never enough to do the whole to support workers. Promising to have everyone's back, he legislated JobKeeper policy that left millions of Australians without support.

Under the cover of COVID, the Prime Minister and his renegade backbench have acted to undermine our superannuation system. The effect would be to see millions of Australians denied dignity in retirement. Why not help put back the money that would afford people dignity in retirement? I won't be holding my breath, because, with this government, the policy is always the same—austerity for working people in good times and even more austerity in the bad. And now here is this legislation before the Senate.

The government continue to seek to extend extreme powers to businesses—powers that continue their pre-COVID policy of wage suppression and insecure work. It would be one thing to keep powers for those businesses that are still doing it tough but entirely another that they try to keep them for businesses doing better than ever. This government would have given these powers to companies like dental company 1300SMILES, who are paying out a dividend of which two-thirds was funded by its JobKeeper payments, passing on the wage subsidy to shareholders. They would have given the power to cut hours and wages to companies like Adairs, who received more than $11 million in wage subsidies at the same time as its online sales soared. Why would they need these extreme and extraordinary powers? If you have enough to be paying dividends to your shareholders and you don't need to reduce the hours of your workforce or reduce their wages, profits are up then you don't need extraordinary powers to reduce wages.

The government is yet to adequately explain why a business experiencing a 10 per cent drop in revenue should be able to reduce a worker's hours by up to 40 per cent, with considerable wage loss when taking into account shifts and other penalties. Indeed, employers already have the ability to make changes to their operations by mechanisms in the relevant award or agreements that require the companies to consult with their workforce and their representatives over a suitable period of time. In the middle of a pandemic, this government has no plan for jobs. It wants people to spend and support the economy, but they need the certainty of secure employment where possible. And, while I support the continuation of JobKeeper, an adjustment to the existing scheme is much needed. There are more changes the Prime Minister could be bringing in this place.

When the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, announced JobKeeper, the Treasurer said: 'Australians know their government has their back.' Except they didn't have everyone's back. They didn't have the backs of casuals. They didn't have the backs of migrant workers. They didn't have the backs of those who work in the arts, in local government, in higher education or in child care, and they certainly didn't have the backs of those who work for companies like dnata, an aviation company the government excluded. The workers at dnata are getting tired of hearing more talk from this government and no action to help them. Dnata workers Natasha and Donna, over their working lives, have paid their fair share of tax. Many dnata workers work for Qantas and still provide meals to Qantas passengers. Many are still being paid entitlements by Qantas. And yet, because of the sale of the catering arm to dnata, they are considered employees of dnata and are cut off from any government support. And now, with the cowardly announcement by Alan Joyce, another 2½ thousand jobs at Qantas are to be replaced with external companies like dnata. We will see workers who are currently receiving JobKeeper move to new companies, perform the same work they have done for years, and stop receiving JobKeeker. This is the cruel situation the Prime Minister and the missing minister for transport have created by abandoning the aviation industry.

The government could right some wrongs, like the exclusion of migrant workers and international students from accessing JobKeeper or JobSeeker. So deplorable has been our treatment of these guests in our country that it is no wonder many are telling friends and family to reconsider studying or working in Australia, at a future major cost to our economy. Despite countries such as the UK, Canada and Ireland offering wage assistance to Australians who are stuck abroad, we are not returning the favour. Unions NSW recently published a survey of 5,000 international students and they found 60 per cent had lost their jobs, 31 per cent no longer had the income to pay their rent and expected to be evicted soon, 26 per cent were sharing bedrooms to save money, and 46 per cent were skipping meals on a regular basis.

I support the extension of JobKeeper to March and the introduction of eligibility criteria so that companies making record profits can't reduce their workers' hours and wages, just so they can deliver bigger dividends. And there is much more that could be done to fix JobKeeper so that it offers some meaningful support to people who need it. There is much more that could be done to stop businesses like Qantas from taking more than half a billion dollars in public money and then abusing the spirit and intent of the financial support.