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

I recently met with community leaders and settlement services officers in my community in relation to lengthy wait times, from application to citizenship, for applicants originally from Myanmar who reside in my community, many of whom came as refugees and have settled in Australia. I'm hearing that for many of the applicants this wait has now been over five years, and they have yet to receive any update on a decision from the processing of their citizenship application. The community leaders understand that in many cases applicants are being asked to provide paperwork that the refugees do not possess and that in some cases does not exist. They are also aware that in some cases processing is being held up due to names on application forms being spelt differently to those received when leaving refugee camps, which they believe is due to English translation problems.

Whilst I understand that complicated applications require additional time to process, the service standard is that 95 per cent of applications be processed to decision stage in approximately 17 months after submission. It is, therefore, unacceptable that so many in my community are waiting 60 months. These applications are still under consideration, with no indication of when a decision will be made. Two such constituents presented to my office to inquire about their citizenship applications, which were lodged in March 2016. Upon contacting the department for advice, it was disappointing that a generic response was given. Not satisfied with the response, my office again contacted the department and were advised that the officer could not access the information as to why the applications were still under consideration in their system and that it would be best to contact the processing centre where the applications had been lodged. The officer was unable to provide any contact details as there are many processing centres. This is unacceptable and is why I have written to the minister to express my disappointment and to give him some understanding of why citizenship is absolutely critical for these members of my community.

I have met with community leaders and I understand the importance of citizenship to these community members. For many, they have left a country where they never felt a sense of belonging. The delay in their citizenship sends them mixed messages about their welcome in this country. They want to put down roots. Their children are in our schools. They want to be Australian citizens. They want to vote in elections. They value democracy, and they are desperate to be afforded the rights of an Australian citizen. There is also a belief from their community leaders that compared to other community members, such as skilled migrants, there exists less opportunity for these refugees to become citizens. I am sure this is not the message that we want to send these members of my community, but that is the message that they are hearing.

I would also note that they are enduring these lengthy wait times and often not asking for assistance because they perceive that in asking for assistance they'll be seen as a nuisance. I implore the government and the minister, Minister Hawke, to look into this situation and give us some answers. I have written to the minister and asked him to do just that. I say to the members of my community: your patience is admirable and your desire to become an Australian citizen is admirable. I know that most members in this place would join me in welcoming you as citizens in this country.

I also want to raise tonight the situation in my community as we approach 31 March and the cut to JobKeeper. There are 3,631 businesses in my community who will stop receiving JobKeeper payments. This will endanger over 11,000 local jobs. The Prime Minister's JobKeeper cuts risk leaving too many in my community behind. One only has to ponder for a moment what impact that will have on our local economy. Our recovery from the deepest recession in a century risks being longer because the Prime Minister is pulling support from some sections of our local community too quickly. Our community needs and deserves a comprehensive jobs plan to support local businesses and workers in the recovery. Abolishing JobKeeper at the end of the month will impact more than one million workers and half a million businesses across the country.

Labor pushed for the wage subsidies in the first place because it was the right thing to do, and we welcomed the government doing it. With more than two million Australians now searching for a job or for more hours in their current job, the Morrison government have no real plan to grow our local economy and support those workers. They are going to cut JobKeeper and add to those long lines around the country. The cuts to JobKeeper are coinciding with industrial relations legislation that could lead to cuts to wages. And cuts to superannuation will make things worse, not better.

Only Labor is on the side of working families in the communities in Lalor. Fighting COVID while also fighting to build an economy that is stronger and fairer after the pandemic than it was beforehand is what Labor wants to see. The pandemic is far from over. Part of the reason and the justification around this date being appropriate for JobKeeper to be withdrawn, despite it still being needed, was that we would all be vaccinated yet this plan has also fallen behind. So communities like mine are now faced with a lack of vaccination yet JobKeeper will be gone. This will damage our local economy. I would say to members in my community about this that we are going to have people in our neighbourhoods facing hard times in the very near future. I would ask the people in my community to ensure that they are checking on their neighbours, that they are seeing how people are coping, because we know already that during the pandemic we had many in our community who were never in receipt of JobKeeper. We know that we have a population of New Zealand citizens, many of whom were not eligible for JobKeeper support in our community. We have international students who didn't receive JobKeeper, we have local government employees who didn't receive JobKeeper, we have people who work in the university sector who didn't receive JobKeeper and now we have a new group of people—local small businesses—who will be trying to make decisions now about their viability. Their employees are feeling very stressed about what their future might look like.

I note too that it's been advertised today through social media channels that if people think they are going to lose their position when JobKeeper is withdrawn, they could apply early for Centrelink support. I note that downstairs we are in discussion around the legislation that would see a small rise in JobSeeker on its old value, while 150 will be ripped away. This will be a tough time for many as they face the insecurity and a question about what their future holds on 31 March—whether the business they are running is going to be viable beyond that point without JobKeeper and, I might add, without a vaccinated community.

These are incredibly important things for my community with high unemployment figures already. This government is going to cut JobKeeper despite the fact that there are businesses still struggling and that still need it. Some have made a partial recovery in some industries. Other things haven't and won't change for a while yet. Our community had the highest number of locals who went on to JobSeeker payments during the pandemic. The last thing we need is 11,000 locals joining the 16,000 already on unemployment payments and doing it tough, who face their own cliff on 31 March. The coming months will be tough for so many across the nation. They will also be tough in neighbourhoods in Lalor. The JobKeeper cuts and Centrelink already running ads for workers on the payments show that this government are aware of the issue we're facing but are stubbornly refusing to change tack. Despite the difficulties that we heard about in question time today with getting the vaccine from overseas countries, they are hell-bent on cutting JobKeeper. That is going to hurt people in my community—it's going to hurt more people than those directly affected—because it will be a hit on our local economy.

We've seen 2020 be a really tough year, and I know that my community were looking forward to 2021 being a very different scenario. The government are pulling support too early. They should be focused on rolling out the vaccine. They should make sure that that is happening as they promised it would. But again, I fear, only Labor is on the side of the people in Lalor and the people across this country.