Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The fact is Australia is in its first recession in 30 years, and ordinary people are worried about their jobs. In my electorate, those with a job are concerned if they are going to keep it. Those without a job don't know when they are going to get another one. These serious times mean we need a serious government. Sadly, we do not have one.

It's a fact that, before coronavirus, business investment was falling off a cliff. It is a fact that, before coronavirus, wages growth had flatlined. In fact, workers' share of national income was at its lowest level in decades. It is a fact that debt had exceeded $500 billion. It is also a fact that all of these problems haven't gone away; they have got worse. But we do not have a government with a plan to deal with them. In fact, we have a government which is seriously contemplating making each and every one of those problems even worse.

It's a lamentable fact that, come October, a million Australians are going to get an income cut as a direct result of the decisions of this government. We are told that somehow $40 a day was insufficient for those one million and more Australian workers who lost their jobs at the commencement of the coronavirus. It was insufficient in March, but somehow it is going to be just enough in September when all of those workers on JobKeeper, many of whom are in industries which are still being affected by the restrictions, are going to have their support slashed, and business support is slashed as well.

The government says in response to these criticisms that Australian workers do not want a handout. Well, isn't it remarkable that that is exactly what this government's decisions are going to leave millions of workers doing? I'm referring to the fact that it has encouraged two million workers to raid their retirement savings. These workers are going to be more reliant, not less reliant, on pensions come their retirement because, for every $20,000 that is withdrawn, it's probably going to cost them in excess of $100,000 in retirement. The well-off people on the other side might yawn and say, 'That's nothing,' but if you are a low-wage worker in an electorate such as mine that is probably the majority of your retirement savings. The government think it's nothing that these workers cleaned out their retirement savings accounts.

Because this government was so slow and so sluggish at putting in place support for businesses and support for workers, many of those workers had no choice but to raid their superannuation. Because of the misadministration of this scheme, we've had workers' savings exposed to frauds and rip-offs. It has been a honeypot for fraudsters.

Mr Howarth interjecting—

The assistant minister says, 'Turn it up.' He asks, 'How many have there been?' I might ask the assistant minister: how many have there been? We know of 150 cases they will admit to. Where there are 150 cases they will admit to, hundreds more red flags and concerns will have been raised.

Mr Howarth interjecting—

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