Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in favour of the Treasury Laws Amendment (COVID-19 Economic Response No. 2) Bill 2021. Right at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, back at the start of 2020, it was clear that Australia would be facing not only the impacts of a global health crisis but also a global economic crisis. In my home state of Tasmania, where, with perhaps the exception of the north-west coast, we have been incredibly fortunate in avoiding much of the health crisis, it was the economic concerns and the concerns from small-business owners that I was first hearing on the ground when this pandemic first took hold in Australia.

As well as the unprecedented challenge of keeping Australians safe, governments had to face the prospect of restrictions on movement, restrictions in consumer confidence and the closure of international borders putting extreme pressure on many businesses and many industries. Since the beginning of 2020, we have seen all of those fears come to pass and then more. Businesses small, medium and large in every state and territory have at different times and to differing degrees been affected. There have been times when businesses have been unable to open or operate for weeks and months on end, particularly in Victoria last year during the major outbreak and lockdown. We're again seeing that happen in New South Wales and South-East Queensland as I speak in here right now.

Of course, we also need to remember that it's not just the businesses directly situated in outbreak areas that are being affected. As we've come into 2021 and lockdowns have been more isolated, that has certainly been a recurring theme. It's not like 12 months ago when most of the country was in lockdown; with isolated lockdowns we are now understanding and learning more about the impacts on not only those regions that are in lockdown but also those regions outside of lockdown. My home state of Tasmania is an excellent example of this. Tourism and hospitality businesses in Tasmania have been significantly affected by the inability of visitors from Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and other parts of Australia at times to enter the state over the winter period.

It's interesting to note that, particularly with the Victorian lockdown and the New South Wales lockdowns, the contrast has been really stark. It's quite stark seeing the impact on the number of people out in the streets enjoying all that Tasmania has to offer when, all of a sudden, two of our most populous states—and two states that clearly consist of people who love coming to Tasmania—aren't able to come here. I know that it's a similar situation for tourism businesses all around Australia, whether or not they're in lockdown areas. We've heard a lot in the debate in the chamber on this particular bill around the impact on tourism areas in Queensland. Our hearts go out to those areas at the moment, even the ones that aren't in lockdown. The tourism industry is an example of an industry which I think is going to need well targeted, carefully thought-out support over the coming months.

Unfortunately, it's clear that the threat of COVID-19 and the restrictions that follow aren't going to magically disappear overnight. As much as we'd like to think so, we aren't going to wake up one day and suddenly be back in situation normal. We need to continue to pursue the important vaccination thresholds that will provide a pathway back towards normal life. Yesterday the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, outlined an incredibly important plan, which has been agreed to in principle by the national cabinet. It is built on the clear premise that getting vaccinated is the pathway to making lockdowns, border closures and restrictions a thing of the past. More than 12½ million vaccine doses have now been administered, and we are now hitting well over a million doses administered every week. A total of 4½ million vaccinations were given in July, which is more than double that achieved in May, when 2.1 million doses were administered. It is particularly pleasing to see how eager Australians around my age are to do their bit and get vaccinated so we can advance towards the 70 and 80 per cent vaccination thresholds as soon as possible. I know that the announcement that young people who might not otherwise have been eligible for the Pfizer vaccine were able to go to their local GP and have a conversation about getting an AstraZeneca vaccine was incredibly welcomed by young people my age. Young people, particularly those living in the areas of Melbourne and Sydney, who are more prone to lockdowns were saying, 'Let me get vaccinated. I just want to get vaccinated. Let me take personal responsibility for my health and get the vaccine so I can play my part in protecting the rest of my community.'

Despite the progress on the vaccination rollout and the pathway back to normal, there is still a way to go. It is clear that there will continue to be situations over the coming months where businesses are heavily impacted by COVID and are unable to operate as usual. Just as we've done with Commonwealth support programs like JobKeeper, which saved so many businesses from going under and kept millions of Australians in employment, the government will continue to be there to support employees and businesses. You can see that in the assistance that we are providing in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland as they grapple with the current outbreaks in their states. Of course, state governments are also doing their bit to support businesses and employees affected by outbreaks and lockdowns.

One of the lessons of the pandemic, whether it's in relation to health responses or economic responses, is that we need to be adaptable and flexible in responding to specific situations. A lot has been said in here by those on the other side, who think that the government should have had a crystal ball or had a tarot card reading and known exactly how this pandemic was going to play out from the word go. Apparently, as soon as this virus was on our shores, we should have got off the wall the book that said, 'This is how we deal with the COVID 19 pandemic,' and followed the instruction manual. This pandemic is unprecedented. We have not gone through something like this in 100 years, and to be perfectly frank, I suspect that 100 years ago we would have dealt with things quite differently, because technology, medicine and all of these things were at a completely different point. Every time I've come into this place to talk about our COVID 19 response, whether it has been our economic response and the support that we provided to individuals and businesses across this country or our health response and the work that our government is doing to ensure that the vaccine is rolled out in a timely fashion, I have focused on the fact that this pandemic is unprecedented. If you think back to January last year, when we were first hearing about this thing called coronavirus, which came to Australia at the end of January, a lot of people thought: 'What is this going to be? Is this going to be like the swine flu or the avian flu of 10 years ago? Is it just going to be a bit of a cold? What is going to be the impact?

How transmissible is it going to be?' This was something that we weren't even sure of in those early days. This was a novel coronavirus. We and other countries have had to invest significant time and significant resources into research to help us to understand the impacts of this virus and how it's going to affect our community.

We need to be adaptable and we have been adaptable. The entire point of the JobKeeper subsidy was that we designed a program that would be adaptable to the situations that we found ourselves in, adaptable to the fact that some businesses were experiencing a significant downturn in their business, while others were not. We have designed programs that are scalable and adaptable, based on the fact that this is an unprecedented situation. We need to make sure that we have the right settings in place so that this financial assistance can be rolled out as efficiently and effectively as possible. It needs to get to where it needs to go to support the businesses and employees who are in need. Fundamentally, that is what the legislation that we are discussing today seeks to do. It will tailor the economic response and the support that our government is providing to those who really need it as we move through the pandemic and beyond a point where our entire country is in lockdown to figuring out what to do when smaller geographical locations around our great country are affected.

To understand how this legislation does target our financial assistance to ensure that it is rolled out in an effective manner, I want to go through the details of the legislation. Schedule 1 to the bill amends the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Act to allow the Treasurer, Mr Josh Frydenberg, to make rules for economic response payments to provide support to an entity adversely affected by restrictions imposed by a state or territory to control COVID-19, so in response to what are most commonly known as lockdowns. This measure will give effect to the government's commitment to assist any state that is unable to administer its own business support payments in the event of a significant lockdown imposed by a state or territory, backdated to 1 July this year and in effect until 31 December 2022. This amendment ensures that the government has the flexibility it needs to provide timely and efficient support to businesses across Australia in cases where they have been impacted by public health orders related to the control of COVID-19.

Schedule 2 to the bill amends the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to allow the Australian Tax Office to share data with government agencies for the purpose of administering a relevant COVID-19 business support program. Relevant business support programs are those that have been included in a declaration via the Treasurer for this purpose. The Treasury can make this declaration by legislative instrument if he is satisfied that the program responds to the economic impacts of COVID-19 and supports businesses that have had their operations impacted by public health orders. This schedule will assist with the timely and efficient delivery of business support payments to businesses across Australia that are impacted by COVID-19 and have had their operations impacted by public health directive.

Schedule 3 to the bill introduces a new legislative instrument making a power in the income tax laws to make eligible Commonwealth COVID-19 business grants free from income tax, and I'm sure that there will be many grant recipients who will be happy to hear that. This treatment will ensure eligible business support payments are able to provide the greatest possible benefit by classifying them as non-assessable non-exempt income for tax purposes. Currently states and territories are able to apply for the same tax treatment where they have grant programs focusing on supporting small and medium businesses facing exceptional circumstances related to COVID-19. This measure builds on the government's broader support to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Schedule 4 is for a modification power which will reinstate a power to allow responsible ministers to change arrangements complying with information and documentary requirements under Commonwealth legislation in response to ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This measure is temporary and will be repealed on 31 December 2022. Schedule 5 is for tax exemptions for COVID-19 disaster payments. These are incredibly important measures to ensure that we continue to have success in keeping businesses afloat during the worst impacts of COVID-19 and that our economic recovery continues to lead the world.

Australia is certainly not out of the woods when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic. I know that is incredibly difficult for some Australians to understand, particularly those people in Victoria and, to an extent, in NSW as well, who have had their lives go into and out of lockdown. Coming from Tasmania, where this hasn't been as much of an issue for us, I can't even begin to imagine the impact that that must be having on businesses and employees to an extent—you don't necessarily know if or when you're going to be able to go to work. You are at the mercy of this awful virus, but this government is with you. We are supporting small businesses in Australia to deal with this economic crisis. On that note, I commend the bill to the Senate.