Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

For Senator Molan's information, there are two million Australians either looking for work or looking for more work. I think that contribution has just demonstrated very clearly how out of touch this government is and these senators are, because trying to live on youth allowance or Newstart is not about living a normal life; it's about trying to survive.

The member for Cook, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, is the grinch who is stealing Christmas this year from thousands of Australians. This year, he's also targeted another 40,000 Australians with cuts to Newstart. This is the same Prime Minister who, after the election in May this year, said that what Australia needed was more love. Well, he's demonstrated no love for people who are trying to look for work and trying to survive on Newstart. He has also attacked the very people who were trying to make ends meet on their penalty rates because he has also cut them.

We know that those opposite don't know, don't care and don't understand what it's like counting up your coins before you go to the supermarket. They don't understand that you have to budget day to day and week to week if you're on Newstart just to pay for some of the essential things, like food, petrol and your everyday living expenses. Those opposite, after all, are the party that said, 'Poor people don't drive cars.' And who can forget, 'If you need to save for a home loan, just get a loan from your parents.' These are the views that are in the DNA of those on the government benches. That's their attitude.

Time and time again they come in here and lecture people to 'just go and get a job'. Well, in my home state of Tasmania we are losing jobs. Not only are we losing jobs week by week, but our wages are actually going backwards! They're going backwards in my home state. So don't come in here and lecture us about how putting up a motion like this to be debated is a stunt. These motions do need to be debated. There are far too many Australians who need more work. They're already in the workforce, but they need more hours. Those people opposite have done nothing about the casualisation of the workforce in this country. There are around 470,000 Australians who are long-term unemployed—that is, they've been on Newstart for more than 12 months. It's totally unacceptable.

Those opposite are unable to create jobs. They talk about jobs—leading into the last election, it was 'jobs, jobs, jobs!'—but what have they delivered? Nothing for the Australian people. On this side of the chamber, Labor will always stand up for those people who are doing it tough in this country because we understand how hard it is to try to manage on $14 a day. I know full well that those people on that side have no empathy and no understanding about the real world. We saw that so clearly demonstrated in the contribution by the previous speaker, Senator Molan.

We also know that age discrimination is a big issue in this country. People of mature age who have been made redundant find themselves, quite unexpectedly, in unemployment lines and having to try and survive on Newstart. What's this government doing about that? Absolutely nothing. We have people on disability, and the government comes in here and lectures about that. How many people with a disability are actually employed by this federal government? Those people talk the talk but they can't walk the walk. What we need is some leadership. That's what we need in this country, but we've seen no economic plan, no plan to create more jobs. What we've seen is this government under this Prime Minister, and former prime ministers Abbott and Turnbull, attacking the most vulnerable people in our community: those who need protection. Newstart is there as a safety net, but their net is full of holes. If the Prime Minister wants to do something for the people in this country so that we can move forward together, he needs to create an economic plan. He needs to create the economic circumstances so that jobs can be created, not what's happening in my home state of Tasmania, where we have long-term unemployed in my home state who need a helping hand; they need help to get a job and to get back into the workforce.