Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator McKim, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today the Australian Greens propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

Labor's second budget is a betrayal of the people promised that no one would be left behind".

I rise to speak on the fact that Labor's budget is a betrayal of too many people who were promised that no-one would be left behind. This budget is the first since the tabling of the report of the Select Committee on Work and Care, which I chaired. This was the government's first chance to address its 33 recommendations. It's report is a majority report. It's senators from Labor worked really hard alongside me to bring those recommendations to this parliament for action. Labor supported them in full, and the committee took evidence from people all around the country. We recommended a comprehensive and integrated approach to addressing the challenges of work and care in this country. It is action that would address the broken parts of our care economy and properly support the workers who make up our workforce, so many of whom are women responsible for others while holding down a job most days of the week.

These challenges have only got worse in the months since our report was tabled. The housing crisis has become much worse. The cost-of-living crisis is runaway in our cities and our towns. This budget was a chance to squarely address the challenges that our committee revealed. This was their chance to make sure working carers weren't left behind. So how do we evaluate the budget in terms of that issue of who has been left behind? Let's start with a couple of bright spots.

Firstly, the change to the single parenting payment which reverses the Gillard government's act of cruelty 10 years ago that forced so many single parents, mostly mothers, onto JobSeeker when their child turned not 16 not just 8 is a bright spot, for sure. But, incredibly, they were unable, they couldn't bring themselves, to fully fix their mistake of 10 years ago. They've left 15,000 families—parents of 14- and 15-year-olds—on JobSeeker, living in poverty. Just $80 million of that $2.4 billion surplus would have addressed that question and fully fixed their mistake under the Gillard government 10 years ago. Shame! It is a really serious error to have left those families behind.

A second bright spot that I want to mention is the allocation of $11 billion to a 15 per cent pay rise for aged-care workers, which our committee recommended and supported. That is also very good. But it's worth reminding ourselves that Labor had to be pushed to meet its obligation on this front. It tried to stretch the 15 per cent pay rise to be paid over two years, but the unions were outraged about this attempt to stall the full wage increase and had to fight to make sure that aged-care workers—overworked, underpaid, with no career structure and leaving in droves from the industry—weren't left behind by this budget.

Against those bright spots, where are we on the broader set of recommendations that our committee made? Firstly, our report recommended a pay rise for all care workers, childcare workers and disability workers. They are left waiting and facing a crisis in their workforce. Beyond pay, we recommended a significant investment in 100 new childcare centres, which are desperately needed in childcare deserts across our country—still waiting. We recommended that the government find a pathway towards 52 weeks paid parental leave, the international standard on paid parental leave, which Australian women living in one of the wealthiest countries on the planet have a right to expect—still missing; left behind.

There's much more that our inquiry recommended that is missing from this budget, such as free childcare and an increase in benefits that take people out of poverty, not a $2.85 increase in JobSeeker, which is less than a loaf of bread. There's so much more to be done in work and care. Much of it was affordable in a budget but was held back by a fetish about the surplus and Labor's choice to go easy on the tax industry and taxing them properly over the welfare of working carers. These are choices that put submarines before our kids' welfare. These are choices that put the stage 3 tax cuts in front of making childcare free, paying carers what they deserve and lifting our paid parental leave to the international standard.

There's so much to be done to reform our workplace relations system. We will be working on that from the Greens' perspective to push further and faster for job security for so many of our workers. This budget has left too many things undone at a time when we could have gone much further, especially for the most vulnerable. We have to stop running our economy on the underpaid work of carers and the overwork of those who hold down jobs while juggling kids and all kinds of care. We must do better.