Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to be able to follow my South Australian colleague the member for Adelaide in this debate. I also note that my other South Australian colleague, the member for Spence, is here in the chamber. So it seems that the South Australians are holding up the numbers here well and truly tonight.

The Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Coronavirus and Other Measures) Bill 2020 varies or eases the criteria under which certain government payments, including youth allowance, parental leave support and stillborn baby leave support, are made. The changes are likely to be temporary and are in response to the abnormal situation presented by COVID-19 across this country. The legislation also provides for two payments of $250 to a range of government payment recipients, similar to the two payments of $750 made earlier in the year. The changes are welcome but they simply don't go far enough. Too many Australians struggling because of COVID-19, through no fault of their own, are again left behind by this legislation—as have so many Australians been left behind by the Morrison government's previously announced COVID-19 support measures and, more recently, left out of the Morrison government's budget.

COVID-19 has hit Australia hard, despite the claim that Australia has done much better than most other countries, and there is very likely much more pain and hardship to come. Regrettably the Morrison government support measures don't provide those in need with long-term security or certainty about their future. This government has always sought to cut support payments, with its mantra being that the best form of welfare is a job. Whilst there may be some optimism about a COVID-19 recovery and some jobs growth, the reality is that, for the one million or so unemployed Australians and the nearly two million underemployed Australians, some of whom have never previously been unemployed, job prospects over the months ahead still remain grim. Australians who have never before struggled have, for the first time in their lives, had at times to rely on community support to get by.

The Foodbank Hunger Report 2020, which relies on a survey carried out between June and July of this year, which was effectively in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, exposes the extent of the struggles within communities across Australia. Foodbank last year provided some 210,000 meals a day to people in need, predominantly through some 2,400 charities across Australia. Foodbank also supplies 2,500 school breakfast programs nationally. So it's an organisation that understands need across this country very well. I want to refer to some of their findings in that report. In 2019, 15 per cent of Australians experiencing food insecurity were seeking food relief once a week. In 2020, that figure had doubled to 31 per cent. Almost three in 10 Australians experiencing food insecurity in 2020 had never experienced it before COVID-19 hit this country. It says two newly food insecure groups have emerged as a result of COVID-19: the casual workforce of this country and international students—again, two sectors that previously were not regular clients of Foodbank and not people that were in need. And two in five people who experience food insecurity still do not seek any form of help whatsoever.

Of the people who need government assistance, only 38 per cent suggested that JobKeeper and JobSeeker had helped their situation, and 62 per cent said that they were still not receiving all the help that they needed. The survey also says:

Almost 35% don't know how they will cope or expect they will not cope well at all when this additional support is no longer available.

Those findings, I believe, speak for many, many other Australians who perhaps did not participate in the survey and who do not seek out community support, even though they might need it as much as anybody else.

In particular, what that report found was that it was young people who were bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic across this country, and, again, that's because it is young people who are most likely to be the casual workers of this country, working part time or working in temporary jobs. Again it is young people who appear to be getting left behind at a time that they probably need the greatest amount of support.

We currently have around 1.6 million people on JobSeeker across this country. The government's own figures project that perhaps another 160,000 will join the unemployment queues by Christmas. For them, the end of the $250 supplement at the end of the year will be a huge blow. Unless this government decides to continue some kind of additional support, they will be left on about $40 a day. It is simply inadequate. It has been inadequate for years. It is particularly inadequate when the people receiving Newstart, who were previously taxpayers with families, have children to support, partners to support, mortgages to pay and the like. And they are in this situation essentially because of circumstances that are beyond their control.

Even worse, for almost one million of them, getting a job has now been made even more difficult by this government, because they are over 35 years of age; as such, they will be competing for jobs against people under 35, whose employers will receive a supplement from the government to assist them to employ them. So they will effectively be competing on an unlevel playing field for whatever jobs are available. As I said earlier, for many of them, the jobs that might have been available to them in the past that they are competent for and skilled to do may not be available for some time to come. I can only imagine the uncertainty that they face, having to support their families and the like as they head towards Christmas. It is something that I believe will add to what has already become a major problem for this country, and that is the mental stress and mental strain on people as a result of the situation that they now find themselves in.

So I say to the government it is time that the Newstart payment was increased and increased permanently. It makes sense to do so. Businesses have been calling out for that to happen. It is good for the economy, and, quite frankly, it is good for the government, because, if the economy is stronger, then ultimately the government's ability to balance its budget is stronger. One of the very reasons why the government, quite rightly, brought in all of these stimulus measures in respect of the COVID-19 pandemic was to keep the economy strong while supporting families, and it has been proven to do exactly that. So, if the government do it in a time of need, then there is no reason why they can't continue to do it even after the so-called need period has ended. I urge the government to consider a permanent increase to the Newstart payment.

Debate interrupted.

Debate interrupted.

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