Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak about the Newstart payment and the inadequacy of this payment for Australians who are working at trying to get a job and to get ahead in life. I am asking for those on that side, on the government benches, to finally acknowledge that they could not live on $40 a day. I have heard countless stories in my home state of Tasmania about the hardship of those people who are desperate to get a job. They want to get a job, because we all know that that is a better outcome for everyone, but we also know that there is a real issue in our community of underemployment and casualisation.

I was able to attend the meeting of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee on the adequacy of Newstart last Friday in Launceston, where we heard real stories from local people living in Northern Tasmania, basically. We heard from a gentleman who came before us to tell us about his struggle in being able to find a job. He is a father of an eight-year-old boy. He had been saving for months to be able to take his son to something that most of us in this chamber, if we so choose, are able to do at a drop of a hat: to take his young son to an AFL match in Launceston. He was able to save that money, but he was then made to feel totally inadequate and that he had let his young son down, because he could not afford to buy a meat pie, which is part of the whole experience of going to watch Australian Rules football. He was embarrassed about that. That is not good for anyone, and it is certainly not good for our long-term unemployed people. He has been struggling for quite some time. He told us in that committee that he is made to feel by this Liberal Morrison government that he is unworthy and that we would all be better off if he was not around to be a drain on society. That is outrageous.

I could probably come to terms with that if that were the only story I have ever heard with those sorts of catastrophic experiences, but we heard from another woman. She was a 61-year-old woman who spent 35 years of her life working and paying her taxes in this country, helping to build the country that we have. She basically worked in manufacturing and on the shop floors. She found herself in a position where she was made redundant. Part of the requirement was she had to use all her redundancy payment and all her savings. She is 61. She has some health issues. She is desperate, because she does not know how she is going to pay her car registration or her insurance. That is really telling.

What do we hear from those opposite? Senator Cash was in here last sitting week talking about how the best form of welfare is a job. Yes, it is, but we in Tasmania and people right around this country heard religiously from the Prime Minister that he was going to be a government of jobs, jobs, jobs. Well, for six years, we've not seen one new job in Northern Tasmania from the Abbott, Turnbull and now Morrison governments. My local constituents, the people of Tasmania, have had enough.

Why should a woman, at the age of 61, be made to feel that we would all be better off if she were quiet and she just disappeared? This is the sort of evidence that was given to us. Other people, young people, have been giving evidence to this committee about their hardship—about how they've been working in retail and hospitality but have been unable to get a full-time job, and that the only time they have a decent meal is when they go home to mum and dad or somebody else invites them home for dinner. We also heard, from many providers of services for young people and those who find themselves in hardship and unemployed, that there's been an influx of young people who had never ever stolen a thing in their lives, who had never once crossed that line, but who now find themselves in a very desperate situation where they are stealing. And why are they stealing? Because they're hungry. They are actually stealing food. That says to me that there is something seriously wrong in this country, when we expect those people who find themselves unemployed to have to try to survive—because I can tell you, through real practical experience, that you cannot live on $40 a day.

What is even more galling is that our federal member, Mrs Bridget Archer, who is the new Liberal member for Bass—who has, herself, had to rely on unemployment benefits in the past; there's no shame in that; I'm not casting aspersions on her for calling out when she needed a helping hand—has turned her back on her fellow Tasmanians by accepting the mantra of this government that, 'It's too hard. It's too hard!' The Prime Minister says that what this country needs is 'more love'. Well, the Prime Minister can talk the talk about more love, but he's not showing any love to the people in this country who find themselves unemployed.

We also had evidence last Friday, as this committee has wherever it has been around the country, that it's not just the long-term unemployed—people who those on the other side feel very comfortable in dismissing because they don't think they will ever vote for them—but that there are also people who find themselves unemployed having been made redundant, who had never thought that that would ever happen to them because they had qualifications and had worked hard all their lives. They find themselves unemployed and what they find is that this government, those on that side of the chamber, have been talking about, 'jobs, jobs, jobs,' and saying that 'the best form of welfare is jobs, jobs, jobs', when the reality is that, in my home state of Tasmania, in Northern Tasmania, where I'm based, there are in excess of 11 people who will apply for each job. Some weeks ago, I advertised for a position in my office. I got some fantastic applications, but I got many applications from people who had qualifications far in excess of what I was looking for. We had people who were applying because that's what you have to do to get this paltry $40 a day, so they were applying for jobs that they had no experience for and no hope of getting.

There is desperation in the community. We have people who are thinking very seriously about taking their own lives because this government makes them feel, on a day-to-day basis, that they are unworthy—that they are a blight and a burden on society. That is outrageous! What this federal government, under Mr Abbott and Mr Turnbull and now under Mr Morrison, have not even considered is that the cost to the Commonwealth government will only ever increase while they deny these people an opportunity to live—because I can tell you: you cannot live on $40 a day. You've got to pay rent; you've got to pay registration, if you're lucky enough to still have a car; you've got to be able to put food on the table; and heaven help you if you've got children and someone else to support.

People are now choosing not to eat. They're choosing to go to bed rather than to turn on the heater at night. And I can tell you: in somewhere like Tasmania, where I'm living at the moment—and I would imagine it would be the same here in Canberra—it is too damned cold not to have the heater on. So what they're choosing to do, if they're lucky enough, is go to bed with either a heap of blankets or an electric blanket because it is the only way they can survive. This is not good enough. Those people on that side deny people the opportunity to just survive. As someone who lived on government benefits, through no fault of my own or my husband's, I can tell you that you are hard-pressed to survive. The longer you're on Commonwealth benefits, the longer it takes you to regain and get back to where you should be. If your washing machine breaks down or your iron blows up, there is no ready, available cash to be able to go and replace those items.

This government, under Mr Scott Morrison, is not only heartless but trying to pull the wool over the eyes of all Australians. The Prime Minister talks about being a Christian and says that Australians just need more love. Well, it's about time he fronted up and showed some decency. I'm not even expecting him to love the unemployed, because it's obvious the government has nothing but disdain for those people who are on unemployment benefits; otherwise, he would be doing something now. (Time expired)