Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to also make a contribution to the debate on this legislation. As you've no doubt heard from many Labor senators this evening and earlier today, Labor does support the extension of JobKeeper but we continue to call for improvements. In the first round of JobKeeper we saw the exclusion of local governments, backpackers, visa workers and international students. We saw real poverty and hardship amongst those groups. I have to say that, certainly when I've spoken to local government in Western Australia, they have been absolute champions of looking after residents, particularly seniors, yet they have had to manage on their own. This new iteration of JobKeeper, this extension until March, is also lacking. We continue to exclude casuals, we continue to exclude what international students are left—and we are bringing a whole lot back into South Australia. We continue to exclude the visa workers who have remained here. This scheme now drops the rate and makes it more difficult for employers to be eligible.

Of course Labor was calling for the extension and we thank the government for finally listening to us and extending it. But really I think we need greater certainty than what we've seen. What we know with this government is that there is always a sting in the tail. The sting in the tail in this extension is the cuts to people's incomes—those who have been surviving on JobKeeper—and making it harder for employers to access the payment.

I want to focus particularly on Western Australia because it is hard for us to get a bit of a look-in. I'm not saying that with a chip on my shoulder, but there are some particular fundamentals that have been ignored around Western Australia. What I would say at the outset is that there are nine ministers amongst the Liberals in Western Australia, five of whom are cabinet ministers, and yet we have not seen any particular champion of Western Australia. What we do see is those ministers simply toeing the lines of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, standing behind them nodding in furious agreement, like those toy animals on car dashboards. Yet Western Australia has some significant problems. A recent report by REMPLAN has shown that five local government areas in Western Australia are amongst the 10 biggest users of JobKeeper. I bet you haven't heard that from any of the Western Australians on the government benches today.

In Shark Bay and Exmouth, areas in the electorate of the minister—Melissa Price, the member for Durack—we have a couple of the highest users of JobKeeper. Over 64 per cent of businesses in Exmouth and Shark Bay rely on JobKeeper. There is a whole range of other local government areas in Ms Price's electorate, and yet where is she? Is she out there saying, 'We can't afford to cut JobKeeper, because it will damage those businesses in Exmouth and Shark Bay and across Denham more generally'? No, she's not. She is completely silent on that. Shark Bay and Exmouth are second to Byron Bay. That's not because the Western Australian border is closed; it's because the Australian border is closed to the international visitors who normally flock to those regions. But you would not hear that from Minister Price, who is simply missing in action on JobKeeper.

Earlier tonight I heard another Western Australian government senator who had recently been to Broome say, 'Broome's doing fine.' I don't know who he spoke to. Perhaps he walked down the main street of Broome and spoke to only a couple of businesses, because Broome also has a high reliance on JobKeeper. Almost 50 per cent of businesses in Broome—again, this is Ms Price's electorate—rely on JobKeeper. Is Ms Price championing for Broome and for the government to not cut rates and to not exclude employers? No, she's standing behind the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, certainly not representing the interests of Western Australians.

In Dundas, a significant number of businesses are reliant on JobKeeper. It is one of the top five LGA areas. It's largely in the O'Connor electorate of Mr Rick Wilson. Where is Mr Wilson on this? Completely silent once again. I haven't heard him out there, saying, 'We can't have cuts to JobKeeper because it will affect significant voters in my electorate and damage local businesses.' No. Like Ms Price, he has been silent on the matter.

The other hotspots in Western Australia are in the south-west in the electorate of Forrest of Mrs Nola Marino, another Morrison government minister. We have the international hotspot tourist area of Margaret River. It's beautiful country. It's wine growing. Tourists flock there. There's very high use of JobKeeper. 'Where is Mrs Marino?' you might ask. She is with Ms Price and Mr Wilson—completely silent.

So we have these three large Western Australian regional electorates—Durack, O'Connor and Forrest—and their Liberal members, two of whom are ministers with, you would think, some influence on the Treasurer and Mr Morrison, yet they're silent. They've just signed up to a JobKeeper scheme which will potentially cut the take-home pay of voters in those electorates and lock out employers who are currently eligible. It will lock some of them out in the future, yet they've given it the big green tick. The other point about these nine ministers is that five of them are in cabinet. You'd think they might be able to take a Western Australian perspective—but, no; they've lined up with the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and said, 'We've got to make a cut to people's take-home pay and we have to ensure that in the future some businesses will be ineligible.'

I want to look at the metro areas. Let's look at the electorate of Pearce, the electorate of our Attorney-General, Mr Porter. He went on the record as not supporting Western Australia, as are all the Liberals, over the state border closure when he lined up with Mr Clive Palmer. They did not line up with the millions of voters in Western Australia, no. They didn't. They lined up behind Mr Palmer, so much so that they were part of his court action to try to force open Western Australia's border. Perhaps they are not in WA enough or perhaps they are not taking a test of the temperature, but something like more than 90 per cent of Western Australians think the border should remain closed, but not the tiny little Liberal cohort, not the nine ministers and certainly not the five in cabinet. Although they did finally get the message a couple of weeks ago and have subsequently pulled out of the case, it's too little, too late. But where is Mr Porter, the Attorney-General and the member for Pearce, on this? Pearce is one of the outer metro suburbs with a very high reliance on JobKeeper. Where is he on this? Completely silent. He's just signed up to cut local voters' take-home pay and make some of the voters ineligible.

Another cabinet minister, Mr Wyatt, is in the seat of Hasluck, an electorate where there is high eligibility for and high reliance on JobKeeper. Where is he? Has he been out saying, 'Hang on a minute. This is a bit unfair. This is going to mean people have less take-home pay. This might mean some businesses in the seat of Hasluck will no longer be eligible.' But, no, he has signed up as well.

So they're all missing in action. Every single one of those five cabinet ministers is missing in action when it comes to paying Western Australia some attention and looking after the interests of Western Australian voters. We've seen this; they've got form. First of all, they backed Clive Palmer over Western Australians' interests, and now they are backing cuts to JobKeeper and making sure that some businesses won't be eligible in the future. Some might say that the Liberal Party only listens to the chamber of commerce. Well, guess what? The chamber of commerce is also saying this. It's got a survey out that says one in three Western Australian businesses is very concerned about what will happen come March when, presumably, JobKeeper will disappear. The confidence that we like to talk about in business is completely missing for one in three businesses. That's outstanding. That's a horrible statistic. Where are those cabinet ministers, where are those other ministers and where are those Western Australian backbenchers? They are all standing behind Mr Morrison and Mr Frydenberg, nodding in agreement and cutting out the interests of Western Australian voters.

Western Australians are watching. They're certainly very angry about what the Liberal Party have done in relation to Clive Palmer and they will be just as angry about this. You cannot have five out of the 10 local government areas across Western Australia—across the electorates of Ms Price and Ms Marino—be the highest users of JobKeeper and have those Liberals opposite from Western Australian just ignore Western Australian voters and put their own jobs and their own self-interest first.