Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'm speaking about those who have not been able to access enough government support to get them through what has been a torrid and awful time, those who have lost jobs and work, and the many who have lost hope of really ever being able to go back into sectors like the arts or entertainment. I'm speaking about many of the tourism operators, who are just pulling their hair out, wondering why their industry never got a specific support package.

I'm glad that we're seeing support on the table now for a number of people, organisations, businesses and workers who are currently in lockdown in Sydney and Queensland, but there are so many more who still have nothing. It's time for the government to really understand and acknowledge that, unless we inject proper support—particularly into the arts and entertainment and tourism sectors—we are going to lose an entire generation of artists, creatives and workers in those sectors. They're sectors that are intertwined. They rely on each other, and they've had such a massive blow. JobKeeper should never have been ripped away from those industries and workers in the first place. They need industry-specific support, and those workers need support as well. Tourism operators and artists in South Australia, WA, Victoria, Tasmania or the Northern Territory right now may not be in lockdown, but their business has been destroyed. There is no work. People can't travel.

We're all working hard together to defeat this virus, to keep our community protected and healthy. We're in this together, except that some people, those who work in those industries, have been left out in the cold. I urge the Prime Minister and his government to reconsider the support and the level of support that they are offering those in the industries hardest hit. The HomeBuilder program for the construction industry was an uncapped program. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent keeping that industry afloat and putting money into the pockets of workers and businesses, but the arts and entertainment industry got nothing like that. They got a small, capped program that was oversubscribed, and then everybody was kicked off JobKeeper.

There is a long way to go in relation to helping people deal with this, and, without a proper vaccine rollout or fixing hotel quarantine, this is going to continue for some time. We've got members within the Prime Minister's own government actively undermining vaccination and the health response. What message does that send to workers who have lost their jobs, whether it was in the last week, the last fortnight or over the last 18 months? I think it's incredibly selfish of those members, in this place or the other. We haven't lost our jobs. We haven't taken a pay cut, as politicians. I think it's incredibly selfish of members in this place or the other to advocate dangerous positions that undermine the very response that is being asked of every other Australian in order to get through this, despite so many people losing their jobs, losing hours or losing money and so many businesses closing. When Mr George Christensen tells people not to get vaccinated, what does that say to the tourism operator in Queensland whose business is now dead in the water, the artist who is struggling to get their next gig and has no idea when that will happen or the mum who is doing as many shifts as she can at the local cafe to make sure she can afford the uniforms and the school camps? Mr George Christensen, Senator Rennick, Mr Craig Kelly, Alan Jones and Sky News are all making it much harder for these people to get back up on their feet. It's insulting. Anyway, I'm glad we're seeing more support being put on the table, but it's far short of what is needed.