Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I begin my grievance for the people in Greenway, while the member for Reid is here I also want to acknowledge the Walk Together event that we shared in on Saturday, holding up that banner and walking at the front of a very peaceful procession of like-minded people across a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities, all united under one banner: that racism has no place in this country and more than ever social cohesion should be uppermost in all of our minds as public office holders and as leaders in our own communities. I was privileged to be able to join Brad Chilcott, and congratulations to his organisation and all the volunteers who put in for that. As the member said, along with the member for Blaxland, we were but a few people in a very big ocean of community sentiment that supports social cohesion and understanding amongst our communities.

I rise on this occasion to grieve for my constituents in Greenway who have been harshly and unfairly treated by this government on the great trio of issues which show up in every survey, in every piece of feedback that one receives in the local community: health, education and jobs. When I talk about jobs, I am not just talking about statistics and the unemployment figures, although of course they bear out the very significant disadvantage that is faced by so many young people in Western Sydney in particular. I want to talk about employability and job security, but before I do that I want to acknowledge the daily struggle that many constituents I represent go through each day to meet cost-of-living pressures and their concerns about this government's cuts and changes to the areas of health, education and jobs. I want each of them to know, because I have been contacted by so many of them and have so many individual stories, many of which I have highlighted publicly. I want to do that because I want to acknowledge that each of them is important.

In the chamber the other day I quoted from former Prime Minister John Howard in discussing this budget. Australians will respond to an argument for change and reform, but they want two requirements, and I think these are fundamental to emphasise. They want to be satisfied that it is in the national interest because they have a deep sense of nationalism and patriotism. I totally agree with that. And they also want to be satisfied that it is fundamentally fair. That is why, when I meet so many constituents in my electorate, they have such a visceral anger about the impact of this budget on them.

When the recent NATSEM modelling shows that under this budget my electorate is experiencing over four times the cuts that the electorates of the Prime Minister and Treasurer are experiencing, you can understand why this is a significant grievance. Greenway families with children will be over $1,600 worse off each year because of this budget. I think we need to be clear how overwhelmingly disproportionate this is. If we were to combine the financial impact of the budget on the electorates of the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Minister for Communications and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, they would still be $150 per year better off than the people of Greenway.

I want to also specifically discuss issues in relation to health. If any specific measure epitomises this harsh and unfair budget, it is the proposed $7 GP tax. At the heart of this measure is an attack on the universality of Medicare, one of the signature achievements of the Whitlam and Hawke-Keating governments. In the lead-up to the budget, what really disappointed me—and I know it disappointed my constituents because they have told me so time and again—was the Treasurer dismissing the concerns of ordinary Australians who rightly believe that such a tax will be a significant impost on their bottom line. They especially took issue with comments on ABC Radio National from the Treasurer such as:

One packet of cigarettes cost $22. That gives you three visits to the doctor.

As if that would be the key concern of the people of Greenway. I heard one of the early defences of this proposal was, 'A lot of people go to the doctor just for the company. They don't really need to go there'—as if we are an electorate of hypochondriacs. I can tell you how badly that was received in the electorate of Greenway. It may not be the case for the Treasurer, but for many of my constituents $7 is a lot of money. Furthermore, illnesses will not be treated as they arise, meaning they will be treated only once. Their situations will deteriorate into something more serious, putting added pressure on the healthcare system. So you can see why the electorate of Greenway is so disappointed with these measures.

I want to turn to education. I grieve for the people of Greenway, who have a government that has slashed funding for schools. I have often referred to Greenway as Australia's nursery, given its zero-to-14 age group is one of the largest in the country. This explains why education is so important in Western Sydney, combined with the fact that Western Sydney is home to so many new and emerging communities. These people have come to Australia under that great contract: 'I will come to this country. I will do my best. I will give up a life that I had in another place so that my children can get the best chances in life through education.' That is the contract that they have with Australia. In Greenway there are some 50 schools—independent, Catholic, government and so on. One of my great privileges is visiting a lot of them and listening to them. I can tell you that, for principals, teachers and parents, the cut that they did not see coming was in the last two years of Gonski, especially since in the last campaign this government went to the election on a unity ticket. Whereas before they had called the Gonski reforms 'conski', now it was a unity ticket. I can tell you how much people have really taken badly to this government's cut of the final two years of Gonski funding.

I mentioned in this place only a couple of days ago the issue of the employability of our young people. I mentioned specifically BREED Education, Employment and Economic Development, whose programs include the school business community partnerships' structured workplace learning throughout my electorate. One thing they alerted me to was a recently announced program of $44 million for a learn-or-earn plan. As Stephen Frost, the managing director, has pointed out to me:

The Federal Government is looking at rolling out a new program next year for 10,000 young regional youth both disengaged from school or work and the young unemployed.

And this is where there is an existing National Network of PB—

partnership brokers—

who have been working with this target group for the past five years. The Federal Government funded the establishment, administration and development of the intelligence and business and connections that will be dissolved at the end of this year—

again, one of the outcomes of this budget—

This short sighted action by the Government will now fund the establishment of a new set of program delivery organisation with the associated set-up costs and lag time recruiting staff and them getting up to speed and developing local connections - just after the providers have ceased to operate or keep their valued talented and connected teams employed as they are not resourced to continue their employment whilst awaiting for these programs to be commenced some time in 2015.

That is from someone on the front line who has done tremendous work in my local community.

I commented the other day on the success of the partnership brokers for BREED. Between 2010 and 2013 alone, BREED assisted 15,400 young people with career direction, often re-engaging them in school with a career focus or employment. The costs of this program have actually declined over time as the program has been so successful and has so diligently partnered young people seeking employability with their local institutions but also local businesses. It is this kind of intelligence that is going to be lost when these partnership brokers' funding ceases.

There is a good reason why I specifically raise this. It is because, as of today, youth unemployment is almost three times the rate of unemployment for those aged 25 and over. In my electorate of Greenway, youth unemployment stood at over 17 per cent in June this year. This compares to seven per cent only two years ago.

I have some specific programs I am looking at connecting with a number of emerging communities. One that the member for Parramatta and I have been particularly involved in has involved reaching out to the various African communities, many of whom believe they are suffering some form of discrimination in getting employed. But for a lot of them their gripe is this: 'We tell our young people and our children if they work hard, study hard and do well they will get a job.' The frustrating thing for them—and I know the member for Holt feels the same because I was in his electorate only recently hearing very similar from various African communities—is that that message is being broken under this government and this budget. We had successful programs that were doing great jobs in this area. They need to be reinstated, not doing the same and not achieving— (Time expired)