Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Where to begin! Right now there are millions of casual workers and other Australians who are missing out on the JobKeeper program. It seems like the ministers and some of the senators opposite just don't understand the desperate situation that some of these workers are in. JobKeeper is a good program. It's a program that the Labor Party and the union movement pushed for, but it needs to be extended to the workers who really need it. The Treasurer could fix that with the stroke of a pen, but instead he is talking about snapping back when so many people are still in crisis and still need support. I asked Senator Cormann how it's fair to exclude casuals like Darcy Moran, who I spoke to last week. Darcy has been working in hospitality for 15 years with no periods of unemployment but, because of the transient nature of hospitality, has been with his current employer for only a few months. The answer from Senator Cormann was really quite outrageous. He said that the state Premier, Daniel Andrews, should just reopen hospitality. Darcy should just go back to work right now, because the Premier should just reopen hospitality. No, the government should extend the JobKeeper program to those casuals in hospitality who are excluded. It is extraordinary that Senator Cormann has called on Daniel Andrews to reopen the hospitality sector despite the health advice, despite the risks to the workforce, despite the safety concerns of workers and despite the risks to and safety concerns of the community.

It seems that this government just doesn't understand the way the labour market works today under the leadership of this government. So many people are in casual and insecure jobs, and that is why so many people are excluded from the JobKeeper program. In hospitality, 78 per cent of workers are casual, and about half of them have been with their current employer for less than 12 months. That is the reality of work today under the leadership of this government, and that is why JobKeeper needs urgently to be extended to casual workers with less than 12 months, to hard hit sectors like hospitality, the arts and many others. Casual workers like Darcy are really struggling. They are struggling to pay the rent. They're struggling to pay bills and to put food on the table. For Darcy it means that, at 30 years of age, he has had to go home and live with his parents. Moving back in with your parents at the age of 30 after 15 years of continuous work isn't really the dream that many of us have, but it was his only option. It was absolutely gut wrenching for him. He considers himself one of the lucky ones, because he knows that some of those who were employed in hospitality won't be able to stay with family and friends, including, of course, those many temporary migrant workers who also are excluded from the scheme. This is the really grim reality that the government is allowing to happen.

The government's wage subsidy program is failing some of those who are hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis. As we know, they could fix it with the stroke of a pen, so the question remains: why won't they? There are so many workers out there who need the government to extend JobKeeper to them in their sectors right now. That, of course, includes the dnata workers—more than 5,000 of them—who the government is also choosing to ignore. Their company is ineligible for JobKeeper, as we know, because the company's parent company happens to be a foreign government, but these are Australian jobs and Australian workers who are here right now and are calling on the government for some support. They are calling on the government for assistance. They are calling on the government for backup. They are calling on the government to extend the JobKeeper program to them. The aviation sector has been hard hit, and these workers need government support. As it stands, the JobKeeper program doesn't account for the actual ownership structure of aviation and the reality of how the aviation sector works. We need to send these workers a lifeline. We need to support them and their families. We need them to maintain their connection to their employer.

As is the case with hospitality, we need aviation to be in a strong position to recover after the COVID-19 crisis. We need to extend JobKeeper to these sectors now. (Time expired)