Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you so much, Senator Ayres; I haven't had a chuckle like that for a while. To be honest, the fact that you could deliver that with a straight face was really quite extraordinary.

This week and last week, I've responded to some pretty ridiculous accusations from Labor. Labor has consistently made claims about the Morrison government that are not only blatantly hypocritical but blatantly false and, like we just heard from Senator Ayres, sometimes even a little bit entertaining. But the absolute gall demonstrated by Labor in this parliament today is as unprecedented as the times we now face as a country. They're a bumbling, stumbling, woefully inadequate opposition whose handling of this crisis in Labor-led states is destroying businesses and directly contributing to job losses.

We know Labor are not about job creation, not about the private sector. They're all about making sure that the socialist Left within their party are being looked after and that the magic pudding somehow will just keep giving and giving. They're not about supporting workers, not about supporting economic growth and job creation. Yet all they can do is accuse the Morrison government of not doing enough to maintain jobs in this country. They should be ashamed of not supporting strategies that support Australian workers. It's no wonder even the unions are walking away from Labor.

And why wouldn't Labor be getting desperate? Why wouldn't they want to distract the Australian public from their mishandling of this crisis under pressure? It takes real leadership to prevail. They want to talk about jobs—awesome! Let's talk about jobs. There has been no relaxation of restrictions in Queensland, where tourism and hospitality businesses are going to the wall. I probably should make sure that I do cover off on that: restrictions are being relaxed in Queensland—if you're a footballer. Restrictions are being relaxed if you're Dannii Minogue or a celebrity. And restrictions are being relaxed if you're working on some TV show that's currently a hotspot or you're Eddie McGuire. Of course they're being relaxed, because we know Labor love to suck up to celebrities as much as they possibly can.

Of course, we're talking about everyday Australians. We're talking about the people who live on the New South Wales border, who are so deeply impacted by these restrictions. We're talking about the fact that 80 per cent of tourism to the Gold Coast is generated from Victoria and New South Wales, yet Premier Palaszczuk, in a bid to protect her own job, is destroying the jobs of all of those hospitality and tourism workers on the Gold Coast. Let's have a look at some of the figures, because perhaps they're not fully understood by those opposite. Tourism and hospitality are two of the most labour-intensive sectors and therefore create more jobs—again, guys, for your benefit, they create more jobs—in the private sector than any other sector for every dollar spent.

So what happened in April of this year in terms of overnight spending? How much money was spent in the hospitality and tourism sector in April 2020 compared with April 2019? We saw that the spend was 91 per cent down. Only nine per cent of what was spent in April of the previous year was spent in April 2020. As we started to see restrictions relax, things did improve a little bit. Things came back ever so slightly, so that they were down in May by only 82 per cent. Then Premier Palaszczuk blocked it all off and shut down this industry and is absolutely refusing to support what would have been considered a pretty big part of the economy in Queensland, I would have thought. There's that expression 'beautiful one day, perfect the next', whereas now it's 'beautiful one day, paradise lost the next', certainly for all those small business owners in the tourism and hospitality sectors.

This issue doesn't just affect those in the tourism and hospitality sector. It's not just the hotels and restaurants. The tourism sector is bigger than that. It's also about the travel agents, the petrol stations and the roadhouses. It's about the shops in airports and all of those businesses that are so desperately impacted by the closure of the hospitality and tourism industry. So why would these restrictions be so tight? In areas where there are no COVID-19 infections, some businesses are closed and others are boarded up. Workers are at home and, as each week passes, they are less likely to have a job to return to. We should all be working together to ensure that our nation is able to stop the virus and maintain jobs. I realise that might be like walking and chewing gum at the same time for those opposite, which is probably not one of their top 10 skill sets, but it would be worth giving it a go at some point. The best that Labor premiers can do is stubbornly maintain a series of poor positions that are purely designed for political gain and are definitely not about preserving jobs. In the dictatorship of the Republic of Palaszczuk, the Premier won't even let the sick and dying go to her hospitals—hospitals for Queenslanders. I wonder if she is thinking about giving back any of that federal money that is being spent on those hospitals that are for all Australians. Of course, she would prefer to see the death of an unborn twin than risk her career.

What chance do the tourism operators, bar and restaurant owners, store owners and other business owners in this great tourism state have now? Businesses along the coast and regional areas are seeing zero trade. They have no tourists, no business and no jobs to return to. And now we learn that Premier Palaszczuk is refusing to talk to the New South Wales Premier. I will come to Premier Dan Andrews and what's happening in Victoria and why ultimately I think the second wave there is fundamentally responsible for the size of our economic downturn, but Annastacia Palaszczuk is not going to let Dan outdo her. Premier Andrews is working constructively with Premier Berejiklian on increasing the exclusion zone around the borders, ensuring that health treatment is accessible and ensuring that teachers and kids at school who live two or three kilometres from a border are able to cross over, attend school and participate in a learning environment—but not our friend, Annastacia. She won't even talk to the Premier of New South Wales. It's a little bit frightening considering the success that New South Wales is having with contact tracing. It would be a pretty good idea, I would say, for Premier Palaszczuk to pick up the phone to Gladys.

I will come back to Victoria. Premier Andrews is certainly doing his best to emulate Mao Zedong at the moment, with his handling of this pandemic that's costing our nation billions every week and putting the futures and livelihoods of its workers on the line. Competent leaders don't just manage the pandemic. It's a delicate balancing act requiring intelligent and measured decision-making. Decision-making needs to be focused on problem areas so that Australian lives and jobs are protected. Premier Andrews failed to focus on the importance of problem areas when quarantining Australians from overseas in a hotel in Melbourne, and, sadly, poor management and poor leadership has cost Victoria a great deal. The number of lives that have been lost is now, tragically, documented daily. The lack of measured focus has cost Victorians a great deal.

In fact today I have been contacted by the Restaurants and Catering Industry Association, incredibly concerned about the restrictions that the Victorian government is seeking to impose on businesses there and the discussion around allowing only outdoor dining. Premier Andrews, come on! It's Melbourne. You don't quite have the harbour of Sydney or the fabulous weather. Who's going to want to sit outside? You are destroying business, Premier Andrews, and you need to apologise to Victorians for the way that you have handled this. There is a word called 'sorry' you might want to use at some point.

Labor are destroying jobs in the country. They are mishandling the health crisis in the states, and they should not be suggesting that this government is failing to protect Australians. Caring about Australians should come first. Australian businesses and jobs have taken absolute precedence under our incredibly competent leaders, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Both of them are doing their utmost to rebuild our economy while working in tandem with our incredibly competent and steady Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, as he works to bring COVID patient numbers under control and to save Australian lives. Thank God for their leadership to counteract the incompetence of Labor's state performers, who are now directly contributing to the decline— (Time expired)