Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I look forward to the member for O'Connor supporting us the next time we talk about safe roads for truck drivers and fair wages and conditions for shop assistants. Sadly, I'm going to raise two serious issues facing members of our community this week. They are issues that have been caused by the bungling of this government. We on the Labor side have openly supported the government in dealing with the COVID crisis when they have done the right thing, as we should. But we also have an obligation to hold the government to account. Unfortunately, when we do raise these issues, this government does one of two things. It either (a) ignores people or (b) wails that we are being partisan. That is because they hate scrutiny. They believe that they are never to be questioned, never to be doubted. Unfortunately, the sad fact is that, when it comes to a number of recent government policies, there is a huge gap between appearance and reality. The devil really is in the detail.

I want to raise a couple of issues that show the great chasm between marketing and the product. Firstly, let's talk about Dnata. The government shut down the airline industry overnight and, in doing so, stopped these people from doing the job they do so well. Hundreds of families go to work every week to earn a meagre living and do their best. They're not wealthy people. They're hard workers doing their best, and they're rightly proud of the work they do. So you'd expect the government that cries that we're all in this together would ensure that workers are treated with dignity and respect. But, no. Last week, in a cruel, underhanded way, by the stroke of the Treasurer's pen behind closed doors, the government changed the regulations on who can receive JobKeeper. Why? If you listen to the government's faux patriotic marketing, it's because the company has sovereign entity employers. Dnata, as we know, bought Qantas catering in 2018. That was approved by this government—the same government that now says to these Australian men and women working for Dnata: 'You don't see deserve support.'

To add further insult to these Australian workers who pay their Australian taxes, the Morrison government then backdated the regulation. Dnata has said that the Australian Taxation Office had previously confirmed that they qualify for the JobKeeper scheme. Dnata enrolled for the scheme and implemented plans for the retention and payment of Australian employees, but this government deceitfully and retrospectively amended the JobKeeper legislation. As we know, they don't like the airline industry. We've watched them throw Virgin workers on the scrap heap, and they don't care if they cripple Dnata. The Treasurer could fix this, and he bloody well ought to.

Next, imagine this, Mr Speaker—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McEwen might watch his language.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, Mr Speaker. Imagine this, Mr Speaker: you're at home; it's 23 April and your partner has been stood down. You can't go to work. You've got the kids homeschooling and you're trying to keep your tears from your kids. You sit at the kitchen table trying to figure out how you're going to feed your family and pay the bills. You see the postie fill your letterbox. You go out and there are three—not one, but three—letters from Centrelink. Opening them up one by one you find debts letters for $21,000, $15,000 and $21,000 from Centrelink. That is $57,000 of debt that has come out of the blue—$57,000 of debt that does not exist. Imagine the stress and the fear that that puts into you when you're doing it tough and in a hard place. That's exactly what happened to one of our local families.

This family is another victim of the continuing scandal that is robo-debt, the failed scheme the Morrison government claimed would be halted. The three Centrelink arrears notices, which arrived together, demanded payment by the family by 22 May. You seriously couldn't make this up.

The government's total debacle that is robodebt continues to hound and hurt innocent Australian families, despite the empty promise from the hapless minister to back off. On 3 April this year, Minister Robert promised that Services Australia would pause debt raising and recovery activity to help ease the pressure on people's budgets during the COVID-19 pandemic—empty words from this government. Minister Robert's relentless pursuit of families is continuing despite admissions that there is no lawful basis for this scheme. Federal Labor has been pleading with the government to stop this, but they continue. As I said, Labor has been pleading for this to be stopped after raising countless examples of bungles and unfairness which have wrongly harmed thousands of Australians. Every call has fallen on deaf ears. The total lack of competence of the Minister for Government Services, Stuart Robert, continues to hurt innocent, vulnerable families already experiencing severe hardship due to this pandemic. This hapless minister needs to come in here and issue a personal apology to these families and provide assurances that action will be taken to stop these errors from continuing into the future.