Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) | Link to this | Hansard source

This package of bills contains seven measures, most contained wholly within the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Tax Integrity and Supporting Business Investment) Bill 2022. Schedule 1 gives the tax office the discretion to require business owners to complete a record-keeping course rather than pay a financial penalty when an entity has failed to comply with its tax related record-keeping obligations. This implements one of the government's responses to the Black Economy Taskforce report, which recommended that the ATO be given a broad range of appropriate administrative penalties for record-keeping breaches.

Schedule 2 relates to the income tax and withholding exemptions for the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023. This will provide tax exemptions for FIFA and related entities for specific periods in relation to hosting the 2023 World Cup. It's worth noting that a similar exemption was given to the International Cricket Council for the T20 World Cup that was held recently in Australia. Provision of these exemptions was a commitment made as part of Australia's successful bid to co-host the Women's World Cup.

Schedule 3 allows businesses to self-assess the depreciation schedule of certain intangible depreciating assets, primarily intellectual property rights, rather than using the statutory effective life in working out the decline in value. The types of assets to which this would apply include copyright licences, patents, spectrum licences and software licences. This was a commitment made by the government in the 2021 budget as a part of their Digital Economy Strategy. It will provide a significant tax benefit for entities that can take advantage of that self-assessment and would cost approximately $170 million over two financial years.

The government has not provided any costings as to the long-term tax impacts of these changes—and it does come with a significant budget cost—and the benefits of this change haven't been made clear. Labor won't oppose these measures and the ones contained in the rest of the bill, but we know that it does come at a significant cost to the budget—and again, none of that cost appears to have been offset by the government in their measures relating to this.

Schedule 4 amends the Australian Consumer Law and related legislation to implement reforms relating to unfair contract terms for consumers and small businesses. Unfair contract terms are often used by larger businesses in relation to smaller businesses and consumers as they lack the bargaining power to negotiate and review terms in standard-form contracts. Existing unfair contract term provisions provide that where a court finds that a contract is unfair then that term of the contract is declared void. A number of reviews have shown that this particular operation of the law doesn't provide deterrence against the use of unfair contracts. Labor has repeatedly called for improvements to unfair contract term legislation in the past, and those particular reforms reflect commitments made by the Assistant Treasurer nearly two years ago.

It's interesting that the government are willing to look at unfair contract term provisions for small businesses when it comes to their negotiations and their dealings with larger businesses yet are unwilling, when it comes to workers, to look at ensuring that protections are in place for workers to collectively bargain and protect themselves against exploitation through unfair contract terms in workplace relations legislation. In this parliament in the past we moved to protect small business operators, particularly those who work in the transport sector—small-business truck drivers, lorry drivers and the like—who had set up their own businesses and were running contracts for carriage. When we put unfair contract terms into workplace legislation to ensure that those workers couldn't be exploited, particularly around terms in contracts that require them to work unsafe hours, to drive excessive hours, to operate their vehicles unsafely—when those provisions were entered into the industrial legislation of this parliament—those opposite opposed it. They ran a campaign against it and eventually, when they were elected to government, they removed those provisions for safe rates and for safe contract carriage for truck drivers throughout this country.

We know that that sort of legislation works because it's been in state based legislation, most notably in New South Wales. The 1996 Industrial Relations Act in New South Wales was one of the best pieces of workplace legislation that the country had ever had because it had 'unfair contract terms' within it and it provided the ability for small businesses and workers that were subject to contract provisions in their contract of employment to seek remedies and to seek an unfair declaration in the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission when they were forced into contracts where they had no bargaining power and were operating at a distinct disadvantage and the court found the terms to be unfair. That stopped a lot of those bigger companies that had forced truck drivers into unsafe terms and conditions for contracts of carriage. That legislation worked. It was pacesetting, it was ground-breaking and it worked. It provided a fairer system of workplace relations laws in this country.

When we did it at a federal level, those opposite ran a campaign against it. Instead of siding with small business operators, they sided with big business, as they always do. They overruled those provisions and they had them removed from the law. That was a great shame. But here we are once again. Now they have worked out that there are many small businesses for whom, despite having 'unfair contract terms' in the law, that's not enough. This new law will expand the definition of small business to a business employing fewer than 100 persons or with a turnover of less than $10 million. It will allow courts to impose penalties for use of unfair contract terms. It will allow courts to make orders in relation to contracts and collateral agreements relating to unfair contract terms. It will allow the regulators—the ACCC and ASIC—to apply to prevent the use of substantially similar unfair contract terms in future standard form contracts. And it will allow courts to make injunctions restraining businesses from using a similar term in a future contract or relying on a similar term in an existing contract.

The provisions also expand the definition of a standard form contract and exclude certain specific categories of contracts in the unfair contract term provisions, including the operating rules for licensed financial markets and settlement facilities.

Schedule 5 provides for the tax exempt treatment of grants paid by the government to businesses in relation to Cyclone Seroja, which impacted Western Australia in April 2021.

Schedule 6 of the related Income Tax Amendment (Labour Mobility Program) Bill will reduce the effective tax rate on certain income earned by certain foreign agricultural workers who are not residents of Australia for tax purposes and who are currently taxed at 32½ per cent from their first dollar of income. The measure changes the rate that workers participating in the Australian Agriculture Worker Program or the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme would pay to 15 per cent. The Australian Agriculture Worker Program, as we all know, was established in August 2021 through the Migration Amendment (Australian Agriculture Worker) Regulations to provide available accessible visas to workers in agricultural industries.

This has been brought about by the severe shortage of skills and labour that we have seen in the agricultural sector throughout the country. A lot of it derives from the fact that, unfortunately, there are many Australians that don't want to work in this industry because the wages and conditions have been so low for so long compared to other industries. Australians can work in other industries, without the backbreaking work, for much more money. Unfortunately, that's what they've been doing. So the government has had to act with these measures around foreign workers.

The Pacific Australian Labour Mobility scheme is set to commence on 4 April 2022 and will be administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Let's hope that we don't see some of the cases of exploitation under this program that we have seen in the past with the Pacific labour worker scheme program, where workers from the Pacific islands could come to Australia and be basically indentured to an employer and forced to work, in some circumstances, in shocking conditions. Threats of sending them back home or taking their visas off them were often used in those circumstances to ensure people were exploited. That's unconscionable. We must make sure that that cannot happen again under the Pacific Australian Labour Mobility scheme. As I said, that measure was announced in the 2021-22 MYEFO; and the combined impact of these new visa programs is expected to increase receipts by $165 million over the forward estimates period, including through increased GST receipts.

Schedule 7 contains a series of minor and technical amendments to various laws in the Treasury, Social Services and Veterans Affairs' portfolios. I intend to move a second reading amendment to this particular bill at the conclusion of my speech. That amendment will prioritise the passage of vital legislation to promote integrity in the financial sector, including through implementing the findings of the banking royal commission. After yet another wasted three years in office, it is clear that the Morrison government's commitment to implementing those important recommendations of the banking royal commission remain in question. To the great disadvantage of Australian consumers, they have consistently watered down many of Commissioner Hayne's recommendations. This includes moving to undermine the commissioner's very first recommendation, which was to keep in place the responsible lending laws in this country. During the course of this parliament, we've seen the Morrison government attempt to water down that No. 1 recommendation. They tried to get rid of the responsible lending laws that were put in place by the Gillard and Rudd governments in the wake of the global financial crisis to protect Australian consumers against financial exploitation and some of the unconscionable financial practices that we were seeing in the US, which, unfortunately, came into Australia. That led to the development of the Future of Financial Advice legislation, which led to Australia having to call a royal commission into banking and financial services because of the unconscionable practices that were being undertaken by certain entities and certain individuals within the financial sector.

And they weren't isolated cases, unfortunately. They were serious cases of financial fraud, perpetrated on Australians, for which they had no protection. A classic example was that, prior to the FOFA legislation introduced by the previous Labor government, there was no requirement in Australia for financial advisers to act in the best interests of their clients. And guess what? They didn't! They were putting their clients into products where they had conflicts of interest. The financial advisers were receiving kickbacks in the form of commissions that were built into the financial products, which were not in the best interests of the consumers. A lot of the time, many of those consumers were mortgaging their houses to go into these financial products. And when they all fell over, especially around the time of the global financial crisis, millions of Australians lost the lot. They were left in a position of having to rely on government payments into the future or relying on public housing, renting or family members to get by.

The Morrison government, as I said, tried to water down those responsible lending obligations. Thankfully, Labor opposed them; and the Senate opposed them as well and wouldn't let them get away with it. But the fact is that the Morrison government have always fought to reduce any cost of wrongdoing in the financial sector. I will never forget the strong protections ordinary Australians deserve and expect. The Morrison government were in denial before the Hayne royal commission, and now they're in denial of the detailed findings and clear recommendations of that royal commission. And we all know they never wanted the royal commission in the first place. They voted against a royal commission in the parliament 26 times. That was a pretty clear indicator of whose side you were on, who you were backing when it came to financial fraud and the malpractice that was going on in financial services in this country. They weren't backing consumers, they weren't backing the victims; they were backing the banks and the businesses that were perpetrating this wrongdoing on Australians. They finally succumbed to community pressure and agreed to a royal commission, but only after the bank CEOs had written to the then Prime Minister of the time, Malcolm Turnbull, and said: 'Yes, it's okay to have a royal commission. We can't cop the criticism anymore. We don't want the reputational damage anymore. It's okay to agree to a royal commission.' It was only after that that we finally got that royal commission that uncovered what we all knew about: the decade of rip-off and scandal that had been going on that left many Australians worse off. This was a blatant case of rip-offs and scams, a well-known issue that had been raised well before the royal commission in reports by ASIC, APRA and other consumer groups.

But the Liberals—the Morrison government—still resisted. They held out as long as they could. As I said, it was only after they got the tick from the big banks that they went ahead with it. We have seen yet again that they have continued to downplay a lot of the findings of that royal commission, and it's no surprise that we see now some of those financial institutions, after we had that round of reform, starting to dip their toes in the water again around financial incentives for branch staff to maximise lending. They're starting to look to incentivise their branch staff to push financial products onto their customers once again. This was the practice that was exposed by the banking royal commission as eroding consumer protections. We've now seen that in some banks staff must now achieve sales targets within certain time frames to be promoted to roles with higher pay grades, and staff who fail to meet those targets are reportedly put on performance plans, which can be used as justification for termination. A senior lecturer at the University of Wollongong in financial services, Andy Schmulow, has said that these sales targets reward staff for increasing customer indebtedness and directly contradict the banks' duty to prioritise customer welfare. He has pointed out that it's exactly 'the sales culture that Commissioner Hayne specifically referred to as promoting greed and customer disadvantage'. Has nothing been learnt from the banking royal commission? We need to be vigilant about these practices creeping back in, and we should never forget that we had the global financial crisis. We became lax in the wake of that when this government was elected, and we started to see some of that financial fraud take off once again. So we must be vigilant.

In other key areas, the Morrison government has also been backsliding on the royal commission. In 2019 Commissioner Hayne recommended a compensation scheme of last resort for investors who had been ripped off by financial misconduct. The government pledged to implement one, but, here we are, in the last three days, and they still haven't implemented it. It still hasn't gone through the parliament. The Prime Minister first pledged to introduce a scheme almost five years ago, following the recommendations of the Ramsay review, and last year the Treasurer put legislation into the parliament to establish the scheme. So there's no excuse for another hold-up, and no other reason than incompetence from this government in not getting this important legislation through before the end of this parliament. Labor has reaffirmed its support for these bills and is calling on the government to work with us to pass them as quickly as possible. Once again, has the government not learned from the banking royal commission?

It certainly seems this is also the case also when it comes to funeral insurance. The Morrison government has left thousands of the victims of the Youpla ACBF funeral insurance collapse in the lurch as well. We know that the impact of that collapse is particularly acute for First Nations communities. Many in First Nations communities were exploited by companies like this and took out funeral insurance where, over the lifetime of the policy, the cost of the premiums ends up being more than the benefit that was gained from the actual cost of the funeral that was paid for by the insurance. The financial devastation that has caused is wide and steep: 17,000 people who can least afford it have lost thousands of dollars, and in some cases tens of thousands of dollars.

In 2019 Labor wrote to the Treasurer asking him to look at those funeral insurance schemes. We warned them of a deep financial distress that was being caused to First Nations communities, and the communities themselves have pleaded with the Treasurer in person. Yet for more than two years the Treasurer and the government have ignored those calls to protect vulnerable citizens and offer them a remedy for the victims of this financial fraud.

The inaction has turned the problem into a crisis. In keeping with the Morrison government's track record, it's all talk, no action and no delivery when it comes to the commitments they made to the Australian people. It is now time for the Prime Minister to urgently address the despair and devastation that his inaction has brought those who were impacted by that company—in particular, First Nations communities.

We also know that for two years the Prime Minister has stood by and watched as scams have exploded across Australia's social media platforms and mobile phones. He's ignored Labor's calls to establish an anti-scam centre to coordinate a response to these insidious crimes, that now cost the economy $33 billion every year and are growing, and he's ignored its calls to hold social media platforms to account for the false and deceptive material they disseminate to unsuspecting Australian families.

We welcomed the news that the ACCC is now investigating Facebook, with a view to possible court action, over scams perpetrated on their platform, and we welcome Rod Sims's observations that Facebook knowingly allowed false and misleading observation on its platform and it could have done more to take down that material. But this is not new. The Prime Minister's passive approach to emerging problems has cost many Australian workers and families dearly. His inactions have made Australian homes and small businesses soft targets for scams, while countries like the UK and Canada have seen real results from tackling this problem head on.

That's why Labor recently announced its 'scam buster' policy that will establish a new anti-scam centre, bringing together law enforcement regulators, banks and telcos to share real-time data about emerging threats. We'll introduce tough new industry codes on social media companies, telcos and banks to hold them to account for stopping the spread of scams on their platforms, and double funding for identity recovery services to help scam victims get their lives back on track. We'll also task a minister with direct responsibility for proactively tackling and taking on scammers.

In conclusion, when it comes to financial services, when it comes to ensuring integrity in Australian financial services, there have been many wasted opportunities by this government. They said that they were giving priority to the royal commission recommendations, in implementing them before this parliament ended. Here we are, with two days to go, and they are yet to deliver on a number of important reforms that were indicated by the royal commission—most notably, the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort, which is designed to ensure that people who have been victims of financial fraud and unable to afford justice through the court system have some form of recompense for the wrongdoing that was perpetrated to them by unconscionable conduct in the financial services sector. That hasn't been delivered, and it looks like we'll struggle to get that through in the remaining days of this parliament. That's a broken commitment to the people of Australia but is not an isolated case, unfortunately.

There are broken commitments in every policy area from this government when it comes to promises that have been made to the Australian people. We'll never forget the promise that Australia was at the front of the queue when it came to vaccines. That didn't last long. We found out that it was a mistruth perpetrated by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister said that we'd ordered enough rapid antigen tests to ensure that Australians would be safe, over the summer period, if we relaxed a lot of those restrictions and conditions that the states had in place. That's what they did, and guess what? COVID ran rampant. We were unprepared. The Australian public were misled by the Prime Minister. And over the course of the last few weeks we've had this terrible flooding in the north of New South Wales and South-East Queensland. Once again, it's been proven that this government did not prepare for the effects of climate change in supporting those communities.

When we had a royal commission into disaster responses in this country, they recommended further investment in mitigation infrastructure, using the money in the Emergency Response Fund. There's $4.7 billion in that response fund, and not one cent's been spent on any mitigation infrastructure. They've used it as a financial bank account to earn interest. There is $800 million worth of interest, but not one cent's been spent on the Australian public and protecting those communities. And what do we get? We get the devastation that we've seen in Lismore, Mullumbimby and other places, and a Prime Minister that can't walk down the street because he knows he's going to be abused by the Australian public for his weak and insipid response to that disaster. When the Australian Prime Minister can't walk down their street and talk to the Australian people, it's time to give someone else a go. It's time to work out that your time has come and it's time to give someone else a go. That's why Anthony Albanese was up there, weeks ago, talking to the Australian people. He had no problem walking down the street, seeing and hearing the stories of those Australians that have been suffering. He had no problem making sure that commitments were made for Labor to invest in a disaster relief fund and invest in that mitigation infrastructure in the future to protect those communities.

In conclusion, I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House calls on the Government to:

(1) prioritise the passage of vital legislation to promote integrity in the financial sector, including through implementing the findings of the Banking Royal Commission;

(2) do more to support women's sport in every region of the country, without consideration to political boundaries;

(3) protect the rights of all workers in Australia, including migrants;

(4) improve economic relationships with Pacific nations;

(5) promote innovation by enhancing education and investment in skills, including through our TAFE and tertiary sectors;

(6) support Australians suffering from natural disasters and enhance disaster mitigation;

(7) protect Australian small businesses from unfair practices; and

(8) provide real cost of living relief to Australian families through wages growth and genuine economic reform".

Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Environment) | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kingsford Smith for reading an important second reading amendment, particularly on budget night, when all eyes are on what the government's plans are, after almost 10 years, on some of the critical issues facing our nation. I want to focus on the eight parts to the second reading amendment. There are about three of them that I want to get through tonight—in particular, the skills and training investment piece, which is critical for the economy to grow and also for jobs and growth in my own community of the south-west suburbs of Brisbane and Ipswich. I'll also spend some time tonight focusing on the item before us as part of the second reading amendment to support Australians suffering from natural disasters and to enhance disaster mitigation. As a member of parliament who has had large numbers of their electorate impacted by the recent flooding, this is the first opportunity I've had to address the House this week about the critical needs of my community. So I will focus on some of the uplifting stories regarding the impacts of the floods that I want to place on record in today's debate. Obviously, I will be providing the outline for where I see the cost-of-living issues for Australian families—in particular, families in the Oxley electorate—who have struggled under this government due to the suppression of wages growth and also the lack of genuine economic reform by the government. This has had a major impact on the cost of living and is really hurting so many families that I represent. As the shadow assistant minister has indicated, the package of bills contains seven minor Treasury measures. I find it interesting that, of all the bills the government is dealing with, they're giving priority to minor measures over the passage of vital economic reforms.

I will start, as part of the debate on the second reading amendment, on cost-of-living issues. This is a term that really has become white-hot in the Australian community over the last couple of weeks. We all know prices are going up, but pay packets are not. Under the Morrison government, whether it be petrol prices, whether it be the cost of groceries, whether it be the fact that rents are skyrocketing, working families are falling further and further behind. They are not staying the same. They are not getting ahead. They are falling behind. Whether there be cheaper child care, whether there be cheaper power bills, the most important thing is securing well-paid jobs, which are going to be critical to making sure that we deal with the cost-of-living issues.

On this side of the chamber, we've got a plan to boost productivity and build more things in Australia. The economic reality is thus: the only sustainable plan to boost wages is to boost productivity. How will we do that? Very simply by investing in skills, science and technology, apprenticeships and free TAFE. The shadow Treasurer has been putting those markers in the ground. Since day one, since he became Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, the Leader of the Opposition, has been telling the Australian public exactly how we will do that.

Side by side with this is the crisis in housing. This bills tonight do nothing to address that. Coming up to a decade in power, the government has seen housing affordability get worse and worse. One of the most important things I think this parliament should have focused on in the wasted three years of this term is building more social and affordable housing. Only Labor will do this.

The legislation provides corporate tax relief, obviously, for things like the FIFA Women's World Cup to be held later this year, and this is of course something that we support. But it also reminds me and members of my community that the government's record on supporting women's sport is really nothing short of abysmal. This term of the parliament really has had it all. We had the sports rorts program, where wealthy clubs in ultra-safe Liberal and National Party seats were splashed with cash, while worthy women's sport clubs missed out on funding for upgrades to vital facilities.

The legislation establishes tax arrangements for Pacific workers who come to work in Australia, but this has only come about because the government has neglected our economic relationship with the Pacific for nine long years. As we know, the legislation sets out tax relief for people affected by Cyclone Seroja, and this is of course worthwhile, but it does nothing to help those Australians in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland affected by the horrific floods of recent weeks, which I will circle back to in my remarks tonight.

People across Australia are rightfully angry with the Morrison government. You need only to go into any bar or coffee shop or pub. Most Australians know that this Prime Minister is focused on the political optics over getting things done. While we are supporting these bills, it really is a painful reminder of the government's shameful priorities over what Australians really need.

Let me touch on the skills component of the second reading amendment and things like wages growth that actually keeps up with rises in the cost of living. We know that the government doesn't have a plan to deal with that. In this term we have also been exposed to the fact that the government, through the former finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said that suppressing wages was a deliberate design feature of the economy. Just think about that for a moment. The finance minister of this country said, 'We are going to keep wages low because that's how we're going to help the economy.' I don't know any economist that thinks that's a pathway to economic success. I don't know if there are many families in Australia that you could go up to and say, 'You know what, we're going to keep your wages low because that's going to help the economy.' It's a nonsense. None of that makes sense at all. But the quote was 'a deliberate design feature of the economy'.

I'm really proud to be part of a political party—a major political party of government—that will secure well-paid jobs by investing in skills for Australia. You only need to go to a business in my electorate, in any of the growth suburbs of Wacol, Carole Park, Redbank Plains and Goodna, and walk into a business and say: 'How are you going? How's the business going?' They'll all say the same thing: 'It could be better, and we need to employ people.' We've got low unemployment rates of 3.8 per cent. Queensland is leading the way, with the Queensland government, to lower that unemployment rate. Yet there is still a shortage of workers in this country. So that's why we have a commitment to free TAFE and making sure that we create more university places to tackle the skill shortages that are holding back our economy, particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under a future Albanese Labor government—if we're privileged to form government—people studying in an industry with a skills shortage will be supported through the provision of free TAFE. The $1.2 billion Future Made in Australia Skills Plan will focus on closing the gap on the key areas of skill shortages, with new places at universities and TAFE. In my electorate, we've seen around 1,480 apprentices lost over the last eight or so years. That's not stayed the same and that's not keeping up to scale. It's gone backwards, and that's just one electorate. No-one has ever explained why that is a good thing, because we all know that that's not a good thing.

If we are to have industry growth we've got to have kids going into apprenticeships. It would be okay if the government were saying: 'We want all kids to go to university. We don't want them in apprenticeships.' I get that, but it's getting harder and harder to go to university. So which one is it? You can't go to university, because you can't afford it, and you can't then get to do an apprenticeship, because they're drying up as well. One in four Australian businesses are experiencing critical skills shortages. Free TAFE will help rebuild industries hit hardest by the pandemic. Under our plan we'll focus on those areas which have critical shortages. Our made in Australia plan will close the gap and provide 465,000 free TAFE places, including 45,000 new TAFE places.

I want to speak briefly on the floods. I'm glad that my colleague and friend the member for Moreton is here. We share the same suburbs, which have been absolutely smashed by the floods. It was incredibly uplifting to see members of the community coming together, and the generosity that I witnessed was very humbling. I was inundated with requests from small businesses and people who wanted to help, particularly people in the Centenary suburbs and the businesses smashed there; the residential components in Oxley, which the suburb that I share with the member for Moreton; and also Goodna, which was a ground zero, flood impacted suburb in Queensland.

We needed leadership shown during that crisis and we did not see it. We saw the Prime Minister of Australia turn up to Brisbane. And what did he do? Did he walk into those houses at Rocklea or Oxley? I tell you what he did. He got a dust mop and cleaned a clean basketball court, and said, 'I'm here to help.' What absolute rubbish. That would be okay if he'd said to families in Oxley, 'I'm going to give you $3,000, like I did to people in the National Party electorate.' Instead, Queenslanders were left behind by a prime minister that doesn't get Queensland, has never understood Queensland and gets up today and goes, 'Oh well, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.'

I dare the Prime Minister to come down to Mill Street, Enid Street or Cox Crescent in Goodna and say to those people, 'You don't deserve $3,000, because you live in a Labor electorate.' That's exactly the explanation that people in my community are left with—no explanation why, when houses are completely devastated, completely and utterly destroyed, in the suburb of Goodna. He doesn't set foot there and look those people in the eye. He doesn't explain to them why one electorate gets support—because it suits the political fortunes of the Prime Minister because the people happen to live in a National Party electorate—but they miss out because they live in a Labor electorate in Queensland. It's unacceptable. I will never stop fighting to make sure that my community get the same as everybody else.

I've never been prouder to be the federal member for Oxley. The strength and resilience in my community shown throughout the floods were outstanding, as was their willingness to do whatever they could to help others. Together we did our best to make sure no-one was left behind. In the immediate aftermath of the floods, Tony from the Middle Park Bakery would call me every morning and ask, 'What do you need?' A few hours later we'd have loads of breads and baked goods ready to send to recovery hubs and evacuation centres. Ramee from Big Pappa's Pizza put out the call on Facebook, 'Free pizzas for flood victims,' as they rebuilt their lives. Organisations like Baby Give Back pulled off an extraordinary donation drive for baby items and have helped many families who have lost everything. Pastor Phil Kennedy from Shiloh Church packed hampers of donated goods for those who were living without power. The Riverlife Baptist Church opened their doors to anyone and everyone who needed a place to go as the floodwater rose. Thank you, Pastor John Robertson, for your leadership. Just last week, the Kerwick Hotel held an afternoon of beers and celebration for the volunteers and flood victims that stood side by side for weeks rebuilding our community. I cannot forget Thiess Mining, who set up a free barbecue at the Goodna recovery centre for flood victims and volunteers.

As I said before, this crisis brought out the very best in our community as locals stepped up to take on leadership roles to help their neighbours and to keep everyone's morale high. Dan, known in the Goodna community as Dan the Mill Street man, set up a pop-up recovery hub on Mill Street with his family, one of the most impacted streets in Goodna. People like Frank, Wingy and Mama made the devastating reality of the floods just that little bit more bearable with their can-do attitude and good humour.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have worked alongside them in recovery. These people worked day and night to support their neighbours and friends. These people stood up and said, 'I'm here to help you.' It was an honour and a privilege to be their representative, to stand in the mud, to help these people get themselves back on their feet. When the sporting clubs, the infrastructure clubs and the community organisations were smashed, I know the member for Lilley, the member for Blair and the member for Moreton in Queensland were out there every single day supporting our residents and working alongside them. It's probably the hardest thing I've ever done as the member for Oxley, but it's been the best thing I've ever witnessed, working alongside and supporting my community. I commend these bills to the House, and I call on the government to make sure our flooded communities are not left behind.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 17:59 to 19:30