Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This pandemic has changed our world. In January I didn't expect to be dialling in remotely to give a speech to parliament here from my office in Melbourne. We didn't expect the closure of state borders to be one of the most talked about political decisions. We didn't expect that we would be waiting every day to see what the infection statistics are like in our cities. We didn't expect to be racing to share the good news, as I have done with my friends over social media in the last couple of days, that we've had another day when the number of new COVID cases is under 100.

The impact of this virus has been profound. In my personal story, the main way it has impacted me has been through my son John, who was one of the thousands of Victorians who caught the virus. He is no longer an active case, but like so many others he is still dealing with the long-term effects of having had COVID-19. He is now living with me so I can help him recover. I also help care for my elderly mum, who has hardly been outside her house for the last six months. Caring during this pandemic has only highlighted how important caring for older Australians is.

For so many others, of course, the story of COVID has been a loss of work, the loss of certainty, the loss of income and the deep worry about what the future looks like and how they're going to get through.

This pandemic has shown us how important a government's response is. The Australian people overwhelmingly supported the government when, early on in the pandemic, they brought in the doubling of the rate of Newstart to create the JobSeeker allowance and brought in JobKeeper. The Greens support JobKeeper but not unconditionally. We need a people-first response to COVID-19 that leaves no-one behind, because we've seen the devastation that can occur in situations where governments can't, or won't, put their citizens' welfare first.

Very early on in this pandemic we called for a wage guarantee and we are glad the government took that step. But supporting that step doesn't mean that we become an uncritical cheerleader. The truth is the government's response has left too many people behind: casual workers, university students and the university sector overall, artists, musicians and those working in the arts. We've seen childcare workers left behind, despite the vitally important work they do in our community. Women have borne the brunt of the crisis, in terms of child caring, in terms of the economic impact of casual workers who have lost work in the crisis and in so many other ways. Twice as many women compared to men work part time, women are going to be disproportionately affected when the JobKeeper payment for part-time workers is slashed in coming months.

Despite the nature of the crisis and despite the need to be looking after everybody, the coalition is still trying to make it easier for big companies and harder for workers. We are particularly concerned that this legislation today is creating a new category of companies that are doing well enough that they no longer receive JobKeeper but they still get new powers that alter the balance between workers and employees, allowing employers to cut workers' hours by up to 40 per cent if that is what they want to do. But these workers who are potentially going to have their hours cut by 40 per cent, undermining the existing conditions in the Fair Work Act, are not going to have their phone bills cut by 40 per cent. Their rent is not going to be cut by 40 per cent. Their other outgoings and other expenses are not going to be cut by 40 per cent.

Let's be clear. In the middle of a pandemic with so many people struggling in a recession, it is profoundly cynical of the coalition to be trying to advance their ideological agenda of cutting workers' rights in the interests of big business, because we can extend JobKeeper without cutting workers' rights. We can give people the support they need, without shifting the balance between workers and their employers. As we've seen with the second wave in Melbourne, this pandemic creates enormous challenges. Now is not the time to be cutting support and making it harder for people who are already struggling so much.

There are ways this legislation can be improved. The Greens will be moving amendments to this legislation to do just that. We want to see everyone accessing JobKeeper get the support they need. We do not want to see some workers—vulnerable workers—relegated to a second tier. We certainly should not be cutting people's income in the middle of a pandemic, and certainly not people who are on low hours and low pay in insecure work. We completely reject the idea that there should be a two-tiered system. We want the Fair Work Commission be able to deal with eligibility disputes. The Greens believe that all casuals should have access to JobKeeper. University workers, temporary visa holders and so many people have been left behind by this government.

My office has worked with one of my constituents who started a small business before the pandemic struck. They, like so many others, were devastated by the impacts of the pandemic. They went into lockdown and their income dropped off. On virtually every metric, our understanding is that they were eligible for JobKeeper. But they were denied access. Why? Because of the visa status of one of the business owners.

This is a government that is happy to hand out millions of dollars in subsidies to mining companies, to prop up fossil fuel companies, to give grants willy-nilly to their mates, whether it is the $3.6 million to Shine Energy or the almost $200 million in sports rorts, but they won't provide support for a small business in Victoria because the business owner is a temporary visa holder trying to build a life in Australia.

I personally know any number of university students who had casual work pre-COVID. A lot of them were working in hospitality or the arts to top up their student allowance because, as we know, student allowance is not enough to live on. It's completely inadequate to live on. The only way students can survive is to be doing part-time work. Of course a lot of those part-time jobs—working in hospitality, working in retail, working in the arts—all went when COVID struck. These students weren't covered by JobKeeper. Many of them hadn't been working for one employer for more than 12 months. They've survived COVID so far because of the double rate of student allowance under the JobSeeker supplement, but they are desperately worried about what's going to happen when the extra supplement is wound back, because their jobs are not going to be coming back in a hurry.

They're looking at such uncertainty about the future. Will they be able to pay the rent? Will they be able to keep studying? We should not be putting our young people through this—our best and brightest, our hope for the future, Australia's future. What does it do to your ability to study when you feel so uncertain about the future? It's hard enough to stay motivated when all your studying is online, as it has been for the last six months, but when you have to worry about whether you're going to have to ditch your studies altogether because you worry about being able to survive, that's putting young people through such pain and is just not fair. It is not equitable, it is not fair and it is not what a country like Australia should be doing.

So we support the extension of JobKeeper, but let's be clear: we must and we can improve this legislation. The government should be doing so much more. The Greens launched our Invest to Recover platform outlining so much more that the government could be doing. A government-backed jobs and income guarantee would help create hundreds of thousands of jobs and ensure that everybody has an income that they can live on. In particular, this would guarantee those young people a job if they wanted one, guarantee them a place for tertiary study or guarantee them an adequate income to live on. We cannot afford to leave our young people in the ranks of the long-term unemployed. We know from previous recessions that, once people are in the ranks of the long-term unemployed, it is very hard to get out. People need to have work, and there is so much work that is there and that could be done. There are the jobs that are there, and those jobs need to be filled and can provide work for Australians. We need to create new jobs and opportunities with bold government investment in manufacturing and sustainable infrastructure, building the foundations of a fair, clean economy. We need massive government investment in services for our communities, in health, in education, in child care, in aged care, in housing and in public services that would improve everyone's lives. There is so much more that this government could be doing to support people in the difficult times that we're currently going through. Things could be radically different if we have the courage to strive for a better future.