Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to speak on the concerns and anxieties of some local constituents of mine. I am sure that to many others here today this will not be a surprise. I am sure they have had similar contact from concerned constituents. I received a call very recently from a local constituent of mine in Wodonga, Mr Colin Storey. He was calling on behalf of his wife. Until recently his wife, Nanette, was employed by a local insulation company, Albury Wodonga Total Insulation, but due to the government’s rushed and ill-devised scheme—about which we heard from the finance minister that the government did not have time to cross the Ts and dot the Is—and its subsequent panicked withdrawal, Nanette was put off, as were many other workers. She is now out of work. Of course, being a reasonable woman living in a community, she understands the company’s decision to cease her employment, because she understands the practical reality for small business operators and the need to have a sustainable business and to be able to cover costs—unlike this government, which not only does not understand small business but also, obviously, does not understand how to manage budgets.

When the government pulled the rug out from beneath the insulation industry, the then minister, Mr Garrett, made an assurance that compensation would be delivered to those affected by the withdrawal of the program. The government assured those affected that the compensation would be fast tracked and made available immediately, but when Nanette went to Centrelink to access compensation payments she was told that it would be 13 weeks before she would receive any form of payment. Mr and Mrs Storey, who are both 61 years of age, are working as hard as they can to try to plan for their retirement—after all, they have been told that they have to work longer. They are responsible people who have been honest, hard workers for their whole lives. Nanette is now out of work and without any form of income for 13 weeks.

I have written to the new minister responsible seeking an explanation as to why it will take 13 weeks for Nanette to receive any payment and why it was claimed that these payments would be fast tracked if they would take more than three months to receive. When Mr Rudd and his ‘kitchen cabinet’ were thinking about ways to throw away as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, they neglected to think about the real impacts of a poorly thought out, poorly monitored and poorly implemented program on hard-working Australians. (Time expired)