Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity to congratulate Senator McCarthy for submitting this matter of public interest for discussion this afternoon. The matter of public interest is the government's callous withdrawal of JobSeeker and JobKeeper, and it will have a particular effect on my home region of the New South Wales Central Coast. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a two-track economy. At business forums that I've been hosting around the Central Coast, I've been delighted to hear that local manufacturers, such as the bin company SULO, have been going gangbusters and are desperate for extra trained staff. Other businesses in our world-class tourism, arts and events sector are doing far, far worse. This is, indeed, a reflection of the profound patchiness of the recovery of some jobs, and there are also indications of further major problems from this government about the capacity for people who need to employ people to find workers to do the work. There's a litany of failures that have led to that reality in the country.

JobKeeper was a vital part of the stimulus that halted the economic wrecking ball that COVID initially threatened. It was part of a stimulus that government, Labor and the union movement all worked together on in a rare act of bipartisanship, a vital stimulus of the same kind that the Liberal and National parties railed against in the GFC when Labor did it. But I would rather them be hypocrites than do the wrong thing for the country. They didn't want to do it. They didn't want to support JobKeeper and JobSeeker. But, ultimately, they pushed the panic button, recalled the parliament and responded to Labor's leadership on this matter.

At the height of the pandemic, the payments were sent out to 3.5 million workers, and that's nearly a third of the national workforce. It was done so to keep workers tied to their workplaces. Around 11,000 local businesses on the Central Coast of New South Wales are actually receiving JobKeeper. That's 47 per cent of all businesses on the Central Coast. So nearly half the businesses there are on JobKeeper. That means that thousands of Central Coast jobs are at risk when Scott Morrison and Mr Josh Frydenberg pull the rug out from under those businesses in just 11 days. In New South Wales, the NSW Business Chamber have reported that across the state 23 per cent of businesses that they surveyed believed they were at high risk of failure when supports such as JobKeeper ended. But you would never know that from the sorts of answers to questions we had today here in the chamber. That just further reflects a government completely out of touch with the reality of small businesses under incredible pressure.

The businesses that are most likely to go under are, indeed, those small and medium enterprises which, pre-COVID-19, were the engine room of the Australian economy and, more particularly on the Central Coast, our great local employers. Independent economist Nicki Hutley thinks 100,000 jobs could be lost as a result of the JobKeeper cuts, which would also take around $5 billion out of the economy. Deloitte Access Economics also reported that around 40 per cent of all businesses in the hospitality, professional services and transport sectors do not have the cash reserves to cover more than three months of operation in the current environment. This clearly, for anybody who understands small business, is an unsustainable situation. There are particular industries that we absolutely need to save. This government has failed to do the work to locate the pressure points and deliver what is needed for small businesses across this country in any way that actually meets the demand.

On 12 February this year I visited the historic Avoca Beach picture theatre to speak to the wonderful owners, our local legends Beth and Norman Hunter. I spoke with them about the drastic effects of COVID-19 on their business and on all independent cinemas across the industry. They told me they were terrified about the effects of the cancellation of JobKeeper on their 30 staff members, and their complaints to the government on behalf of the sector continue to fall on deaf ears. They weren't just advocating for themselves; they were advocating for cinemas right across this country. We need to do far more to support local independent cinemas. No case of COVID-19 in the world has been contracted in a movie theatre. We need to support our local cinemas and local industries that are doing it tough. If you haven't been to the movies in a while, senators, I encourage you all to do so to support a local cinema. They need your assistance.

On that same day I also had the privilege to visit EI Productions, a proud family-run local business in West Gosford that provides expert lighting and technical expertise to live music productions. If you've been to a fantastic concert featuring a major Australian or international band, there's a pretty good chance that they were the ones who did the lighting and sound and gave you a great show. Pre pandemic, this business, based in my local area on the Central Coast, was one of the top performers in its field in Australia. But the shutdown of the live music industry and global travel have left this once-bustling business absolutely struggling. It's exactly the kind of business that JobKeeper was created to protect and is now being abandoned by this government. It was a competitive industry leader, now brought low not by wilful neglect or poor business techniques but by a once-in-a-generation pandemic that has crippled this specific industry. The government needs to listen. The government needs to support exactly these kinds of local businesses. The government needs to extend JobKeeper to hardworking Australians like Caroline and Neale Mace.

The industry group representing the New South Wales events industry, Save NSW Events, recently surveyed their industry. They found out what the government couldn't hear—that is, 95 per cent of those businesses were on JobKeeper. The whole industry declined to the tune of almost 82 per cent from April to December 2020. The survey reported that 45 per cent of those companies will lay off staff and 42 per cent will have to close their doors when this government rips JobKeeper away. What they need is targeted support to keep their doors open till better times arrive. We cannot allow the two-track economy to continue; otherwise, we're going to have an incredible loss of capacity and devastation of job loss for those people who simply have nowhere to go and put their great skills to work.

What the government's decided to do to these businesses that have been struggling for more than 12 months with this massive downturn is give them another layer of debt, offering them loans instead of the support that they need right now. While it's better than nothing, it's going to mean that businesses taking on further debt to survive—with the vaccine rollout far away and increasing variants of the virus—will be forced by this government to take on liabilities in an increasingly insecure environment. These loans may even be rejected by banks on risk grounds, leaving businesses with no support whatsoever. The government's got pretty poor form on organising loan programs. The last one was so poorly organised and promoted that only five per cent of funds went out the door. But they announce the big sum, they get the razzle-dazzle announcement out of the way, and then the disaster follows behind closed doors. That's what they keep getting away with. But time's up.

This sort of action isn't sufficient. It isn't smart policy. It isn't right. The data is there. The indicators are there. The peaks of the industries that are at risk are revealing the shape of need for small business in this country. But this government is blind and deaf when it comes to that and refuses to respond. Mr Morrison's government, which is not listening, and the invisible member Lucy Wicks have shut down the Ettalong Centrelink office at this time. Knowing for over two years that the lease was ending, they didn't find another location and instead let Centrelink go. This is a gut punch to people on the peninsula at a time when they absolutely need this office. We're approaching a cliff, with JobKeeper being withdrawn on 28 March. This government, who closed a Centrelink office, will bring businesses to the brink of disaster. (Time expired)