Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

These are really tough times. This extraordinary health crisis has created an extraordinary jobs crisis, with our first recession in almost 30 years. People are doing it tough. People are losing their jobs and businesses, and what they need from the Morrison government is a plan—a plan to protect jobs and a plan to rebuild jobs in our country.

These are times that call for strong leadership. People need their government to step up and take action. They need substance, not spin; delivery, not door stops; and details, not photo-ops. Australians need to know—they deserve to know—exactly how Scott Morrison and his government will rebuild jobs in this country. Today over one million Australians are unemployed for the first time in history, and 1½ million Australians can't find enough work, and the government expects another 400,000 Australians to lose their jobs before Christmas. But all we're getting right now is slogans that grab a headline for a day, followed by weeks of waiting for details that never come.

For those almost three million Australians who could be unemployed or underemployed by the end of the year, this is just not good enough. Take HomeBuilder. This was a scheme to help keep tradies in jobs, but, since it was announced, there have been zero approvals and zero payments made. Take JobKeeper, a plan that specifically excluded the very workers whose jobs were shut down by COVID—casuals in hospitality, contractors in the arts and entertainment, and anyone working in a university. Take JobTrainer, a scheme apparently designed to boost vocational training. But, with the $3 billion in cuts that the government has made to our TAFEs over the past seven years, the government needs more than a slogan to get people trained up and back to work. And then there is JobMaker—great name but still no detail. I understand that the government wants to sell their policies to the public, but that can't be all there is. There needs to be detail, and these policies need to give hope to Australians who are doing it really tough, because when there isn't detail there isn't a plan. Workers lose their jobs and businesses go under, and that is happening right now.

What is the plan for the early-childhood educators who were kicked off JobKeeper and are now being stood down across Victoria? What is the plan for hospitality workers and small businesses who are struggling to survive in our major cities? What is the plan for the rural tourism industry with our international borders closed? What is the plan for our universities who are laying off staff right now? What is the plan for our manufacturing sector, which has been decimated under this government and needs to rebuild? What is the plan for the arts, where support was announced in June and not a single dollar has been spent?

What is the government's plan to rebuild jobs in this country? There are a million people who are unemployed, 1½ million people who don't have enough work and 400,000 people who the government expects will lose jobs in coming months. All these people need a plan. They don't need slogans; they don't need spin; they don't need photo ops; they don't need doorstops. They need a plan with details—a plan to rebuild jobs, rebuild industries and rebuild lives. It's time the Morrison government delivered it.