Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

The member for McMahon looks like a spoilt child. That's what he looks like when he comes in here and carries on with such rot. To people listening, Australians don't agree with him.

This year, 2020, has been a tough year, with COVID-19, this international pandemic, and for no-one more than year 12 students. I wish the best for all year 12 students, not just those in my own electorate of Petrie but those around Queensland and right around the country at the moment, who are studying for exams and are about to enter the workforce or go on and do further study. I wish them all the best. The Morrison government has been with them as well. I know that the Minister for Education in the Morrison government has ensured that the Education Council will ensure that every year 12 student who is finishing this year will get a leaving certificate, a completion ATAR guaranteed, this year. That's important because it's been a tough year for year 12s. I know: my oldest son is in year 12 this year. He's currently studying for exams.

The Morrison government is focused on delivering for all Australians the economic lifeline that they need at the moment, at this point in time, to get through this year of 2020, this unique year of global pandemic. We're building confidence and momentum in our economy for the future so that we can sustain a strong economy for all Australians in all electorates represented here in this place.

We are creating jobs—or businesses are creating jobs—to keep Australian families going and support workers who need that work to pay their mortgages and so forth. In the recent budget we've announced, in many different ways, support for Australians. The other day when I was driving down my street I stopped and spoke to a fellow who was painting, Mr Dayne Baker from Allscale Brushworx in Clontarf. He's currently got eight staff and he's actually been able to hire two additional apprentices just in the last few weeks because of what the Morrison government is doing in paying half of their wages. Dayne said, 'The government incentive was a big factor in hiring two new apprentices,' and, while growing his business, he saw this as an important opportunity to use this program to help local people back into employment at this difficult time. I want to thank Dayne and so many others like him around the country that are hiring apprentices.

Just last week, the Prime Minister and I were in Aspley with Luke Camilleri at Grand Prix Mazda. His father, Joe, started that company over 50 years ago. They've become a powerhouse. They have over 120 staff in Aspley alone. Once again, we were meeting apprentices there whose wages were being paid at the moment. Luke said that, during the height of the pandemic, JobKeeper was a big influence in helping keep their staff connected. The instant asset write-off has also been a phenomenal help for Grand Prix Mazda in Aspley. Kris at Cafe Diversity in Redcliffe was telling me that he was very thankful that they had been able to survive through COVID thanks to the Morrison government's JobKeeper program. They lost 80 per cent of their business overnight at the height of this pandemic and were in desperate need of support, which was given to them the Australian government. He said that, thanks to those payments, they have re-emerged and are now on the hunt for an apprentice chef and a manager for the cafe. So, if you're in my electorate and looking for work, get onto SEEK, because right now Cafe Diversity is hiring an apprentice and a manager. Make sure you have a look.

I know the member for Brisbane would agree that the tax cuts have been a great help to so many Australians. What a great time to hand back people's hard-earned money to them when they need a little bit of extra support. What it means is that a retailer worker in, say, Sydney, Melbourne or Perth will get $2,160 more back in their pocket this year compared to 2017-18. That's a big difference. It's an extra $1,080 in the hand. That was passed just a fortnight ago. That's a great incentive for young workers. A tradie earning $80,000 a year will get $2,160 back. A teacher earning $120,000 a year will benefit by getting $2,745 back in their pocket this year compared to 2017-18. We know those tax cuts encourage more people into the workforce, which brings more income tax for the federal government for us to invest in essential services.

Transport and road infrastructure have been increased big time right around the country. There are so many new roads being built. The only downside in my own electorate in Queensland is that the Palaszczuk government has been really slow to act here, and it's one the big disappointments that all Queensland members have to deal with. Right now, it's taking four years from the time a road is announced to when the first sod is turned. I think of Beams Road in my own electorate. The Palaszczuk government announced in 2017 that they'd upgrade it. It won't even start till next year. That's four years until a sod is turned. I ask Queenslanders to look at that when voting on 31 October and to consider the LNP alternative up there, with Deb Frecklington and her team, who have a plan to get Queensland going again. I know Amanda Cooper in Aspley has been fighting hard and has a great track record of representation, and so do Kerri-Anne Dooley in Redcliffe and Yvonne Barlow in Murrumba. So there's a lot happening.

I just want to talk a little bit about my own portfolio of homelessness and some of the things that we're doing there, too. One of the things I did recently, in a bipartisan way, with the Queensland state minister was write to every boarding house in Queensland. At the last census, throughout Australia, there were some 17,800 homeless people living in boarding houses. This joint letter from me and the state minister spoke about improving tenure for tenants—rather than giving them a week-by-week lease, ensure they have three months—and also ensuring that they have privacy outside of their own room. That's a way boarding house owners can act to help those tenants.

Home ownership has obviously been a big part of the Morrison government's plan, with an additional 10,000 places in the extension of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme; the $25,000 tax-free grant for eligible owner-occupiers, including first home buyers, through HomeBuilder 2020, which has been going gangbusters as we heard the minister for housing say in question time.

For Indigenous Australians, the Morrison government is fulfilling its election commitment of finalising the agreement with the Queensland government to deliver better housing for Indigenous people. And Indigenous Business Australia will see an additional investment of $150 million over the next three years to deliver 360 home loans for new housing construction in regional Australia.

There is support for older and disabled Australians and their families through a targeted capital gains tax exemption for granny flat arrangements where there is a formal written agreement in place. Around 3.9 million pensioners and four million Australians with a disability will be eligible for this exemption.

For women, we have just announced the $60 million Safe Places program and the 40 successful projects around Australia. We did that in Adelaide two weeks ago.

For homeless people, there is free PBS subsidised medicines, including enabling scripts to be processed online by improving access to medicines.

For youth homelessness, there are social impact investments, including Youth at Risk programs. I want to take this opportunity to thank the state governments for their combined investment of $2 billion on new social housing.

There are also the City Deals. In the Perth City Deal, there is $30 million to extend the Perth Concert Hall, to upgrade the Perth Cultural Centre precinct and to fund homelessness projects in Perth's CBD.

In mining, in my own electorate, GlassTerra Pty Ltd have just been awarded a $420,000 grant under the Morrison government's Entrepreneurs Program. Christian Larsen, the CEO, told me that this will help create more jobs and it will help create more exports. It's an Australian startup, and Australian technology is to become a global market leader. It will help save lives as they improve safety on tailings dam walls. That's a very important opportunity there as well.

So the Morrison government is listening. We are out there providing for all Australians, ensuring that, during this difficult time, Australians get the help they need. We hear nothing but negativity from the opposition. We heard it from the member for McMahon and we'll hear it from the member for Newcastle or whoever is speaking next. We hear about everything that is bad about this country. At the moment, what we are focused on is the Australian people and delivering for them.

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