Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is the eighth time in eight long years that I've stood in this place to respond to a Liberal budget—Liberal budgets mired in unfairness and riven with cuts, Liberal budgets that look after their mates, Liberal budgets declaring victory in battles yet to be won. This eighth Liberal budget is unimaginative policy pulled together by a tired government after eight long years. But all eight Liberal budgets have one characteristic in common: they don't deliver for Melbourne's west. They don't deliver for dramatically growing communities, like our city of Wyndham, which is growing at a phenomenal pace. It has just crossed over the 300,000 population mark. Liberal budgets don't deliver because they don't get us. And after eight long years it's pretty obvious that they won't ever get us. They're not on our side and they never will be.

The pandemic has given us many challenges, and no-one was hit harder in 2020 than my community—the people I represent. I could rattle off the stats, but it is the individual stories that paint the picture: sitting on the phone hearing about the deaths of parents in aged care and listening to locals struggling to make ends meet as they were forced onto unemployment support for the first time. I heard from others who were denied support because of the visa they were on or because of the owner of the company they worked for—not on the list of those deserving of support. I spoke to childcare workers deemed to be of less value than other workers, as they were cut from early support. And I heard about the challenges facing students in the virtual classroom, while carrying the burden of family job losses on their shoulders in their most important years. The challenges were deep, and they're not done yet. The scars are still there, and some wounds are yet to heal. But these challenges do present an opportunity—an opportunity to reimagine, to challenge the status quo, to change our society for the better, and to turn the tide of eight long years of Liberal neglect of the west and their fairness-free zone.

This budget was unimaginative and it missed the mark. In contrast, Labor is on the side of working families. After COVID, Labor will deliver national reconstruction that's squarely focused on jobs—good, secure jobs. Under Labor, no-one will be held back and no-one will be left behind. This budget was full of missed opportunities to provide a better future, but it also forgot to address the real issues we must get right to bring that future closer. There's no extra money to fix the shambolic vaccine rollout or to build purpose-built quarantine facilities. If anything has been proven by the mutant strains of this virus, it's that hotels are not built for quarantine. Our capital cities have been crippled, our businesses shut and family travel plans thrown up in the air. There have been 17 leaks from hotel quarantine right across the nation, and how many commitments to permanent quarantine have there been from this government? Zero.

Right now, residents across Melbourne are changing plans and lining up for hours to be tested. They're masking up and they're scrambling to source a vaccine program, and they're doing this again because the Prime Minister has failed them. Let's be straight: if Australians had been vaccinated to the levels we were promised, this would not be happening. If the Prime Minister had built for-purpose quarantine facilities, this would not be happening. But there have been no plans from this 'prime shirker'. Victoria took the initiative, offering to run a fit-for-purpose quarantine facility close to the airport, but Treasurer Frydenberg—who is from Victoria, but not for Victoria—failed to fund it in this budget. Quarantine is a federal responsibility. Section 51 of the Constitution says it in black and white. The Prime Minister, who didn't hold a hose as the country burned, has failed us again. It's all smirk and no work. I represent the community which had the highest numbers of cases across the country in 2020. Now, as we wait for more testing to be done, I know my community is waiting with bated breath, and with fear and anxiety, that it could all happen again. And that will happen with every outbreak until Australians are fully vaccinated. It isn't just the slow, incompetent rollout; it's the mixed messages being pushed by ministers and conspiracy theorists on the government backbench. That's what's hindering the vaccination program as much as the failed ordering and the failed delivery. The government itself is seeding a hesitancy to get vaccinated, and vaccines are our ticket out of this pandemic and into our future. The sooner we're vaccinated the sooner the risk of lockdowns and restrictions will go away, but this budget fails to realise and address that fact.

I must admit that there was something unique about this budget. It had a grand total of one commitment specifically for the seat of Lalor. Finally, the Liberals have been able to find us on a map, and I'm proud that it is a project I've campaigned for. In fact, I've raised it 15 times in this House since 2015. The federal government's commitment of $11 million for modernisation of the Werribee Irrigation District is welcome—if it's not just an announcement. It would have been welcomed in 2015, when I first raised it in this place. It would have been welcomed when the Victorian government made a commitment to their share in 2018. But, finally, we're here. I want to congratulate the farmers of Werribee South for their advocacy, their campaigning and their determination. It was an honour to break the news to them that their efforts had finally been successful.

But, unfortunately, that's about as far as the west got: minuscule funding for more investigation into the Outer Metropolitan Ring Road and funding on the never-never to create a wedge between Melbourne's west and Melbourne's north over a freight hub that Victoria will get on with. When we compare this to Labor budgets—federal under Gillard and state under Andrews—it's clear that only Labor invests in the west of Melbourne. It's because Labor gets our community.

This eighth Liberal budget not only failed to deliver on local projects in Lalor but failed to deliver for the locals in Lalor. Cost of living continues to go up as wages go backwards. Australians are struggling to make ends meet, and there are at least 14,000 of them doing that in Lalor right now. Choice has described the two major postcodes in our community as hotspots for mortgage stress, and the only support this Prime Minister can offer is a tax cut that will be taken away and a pay cut baked into the budget. Australians are suffering under a Prime Minister who fails to understand the pressures they face. They're struggling to pay rent and they're sleeping on their mates' couches. They can't get secure full-time work, and they're struggling to get the training to find that work.

For Australians out of work, there was no support to find them work. We must address the situation they now face. Australians who are on support payments need more than the $3.50 increase they were offered by this government earlier this year. It's not enough. It's not enough for the almost 11,000 locals in my community who are on JobSeeker, a number which is double the pre-pandemic number. This is a number to remember when members opposite start chest-beating while declaring the war has been won.

There's no plan in this budget for local jobs. Last Wednesday, once again, I was on the phone to the member for Gellibrand to discuss more jobs leaving the western suburbs of Melbourne. I enjoy the company of the member for Gellibrand, but I am getting sick of having these conversations. Toyota was dared to leave by a Liberal Treasurer, the Williamstown shipyards were left with no work in order to enable pork-barrelling in marginal seats in other states, the oil refinery was left with a support package that was too little too late, and Qenos was a victim of the refinery closure. Too many small businesses in the supply chain have been left as dominoes to fall. Four thousand four hundred manufacturing jobs are gone in the west of Melbourne, and highly skilled locals are out of work. These job losses could have been avoided. They would have been avoided if the Liberals were on our side. We need jobs in the west. We need jobs for the 11,000 locals on JobSeeker. We need jobs for those stuck in a jobactive system which ticks boxes to satisfy a heartless government but does nothing to get those out of work into jobs. We need jobs that will last.

I love my community. It's my home. I was one of eight children raised by my widowed mother in Werribee, an inspiration for when I was a single mother making ends meet for my boys. I went to our local schools as a student and taught in those schools as a teacher and a principal. I'm the daughter of a Werribee South farmer, and I stood alongside those farmers to fight a toxic dump. I'll fight for my community at home and in this House. This is my pledge to the people of our community: you have always come first and you will always come first. Our community is special and growing. Whether you're a fifth-generation local like me or one of our newest local citizens, you need someone on your side—someone on your side to tackle cost of living and flat wages, someone on your side when you're stuck in traffic on the freeway or trying to get kids into affordable child care, and someone on your side when your child is struggling in the classroom or, as an adult, is stuck in insecure work. I'll always be on your side, and only an Albanese Labor government will be on your side.

I want you to imagine for a moment, Deputy Speaker, a future under a federal Labor government. Imagine a future where renewables are seen as the powerhouse they could be for employment in this country. Imagine a future where the care economy is valued and our frontline workers who saw us through a pandemic are treated fairly, have a single job and are directly employed by their employer, not moving from job to job and risking taking germs of any nature from one aged-care facility to another. Imagine a future where people who work in child care are valued and we know they're valued because they're paid well. Imagine a future in this country where everybody knows that if they get up early go to work they'll get a decent week's pay; that a job will mean that they can pay the rent, take out a mortgage and have security; that next week they'll get up and go to the job again because they're not waiting for a text message from a labour hire company at 11 o'clock at night. They'll know every day they're going to work and they're not living the stress and the chaos of insecure work.

Imagine if we had a government right now in this place who saw this as a once-in-a-century opportunity to reimagine the Australian economy, to improve the Australian society, to create a fairer country for every Australian. Imagine a government that didn't use a pandemic as a reason to leave 30,000 Australians stranded overseas. Imagine a government that valued Australian citizenship and what it means. Imagine a government prepared to send repatriation flights not only when it becomes a problem in the media as a political fix. Imagine a government that's committed to supporting and assisting Australians overseas wherever and whenever they need it.

In my community, we know how important these things are. We know that the last time we had a Labor government, under Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the stronger regions grants that were given included everyone across the country. We know because we had things funded by a federal government eight years ago. We had the Regional Rail Link established in our community, which is now an absolute linchpin in Victoria's public transport network. It was established by a Labor government, but since its establishment there has been not one commitment from this government—not one new station, not a new carpark, not a new or larger train. This government has ignored Melbourne's west for eight long years. It's a tired government, and the people in my community are tired of it.

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