Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I am always interested in listening to the coalition talk about robodebt. They never talk about the fact that they had to say sorry. They never talk about the fact that $1.8 billion was awarded to nearly 500,000 people, victims of their robodebt scheme. They never talk about the fact that the judge said it was shameful and unlawful. They never talk about any of that. They try to blame the Labor Party, when, of course, this was a scheme designed by the Morrison government.

What is happening now, and what happened in question time today, is that we hear in responses relating to JobKeeper the rank hypocrisy of the government when it comes to enforcement and compliance measures applied against those who are most vulnerable. The interesting thing was Senator Birmingham's response. He tried to throw back to the Labor Party: 'You just look after those who can't look after themselves—the more vulnerable.' Yes, we do! Seriously!

It is quite clear in the responses we got that there are two standards here. There is one standard for big corporations that have done well from this pandemic. JobKeeper was good for people who were losing their profits. I know that. I know two companies that received JobKeeper—you can have a little chuckle behind your mask over there, Senator—but they had to show that they were going backwards in profit by, from memory, about 30 per cent. So it is really interesting when you talk about the guidelines here. We've got one standard for big corporations that have done well and another for ordinary Australians struggling through the repeated lockdowns and border closures, trying to make ends meet and trying to put food on the table.

It's just a form of hypocrisy that we really have come to expect from the Morrison Liberal government: one rule for the rich and powerful, where you get off 'Scott-free' with taxpayer support, and when businesses have never been better, and another for the working people of Australia, who are just trying to do the right thing, faced with some of the most difficult circumstances Australians have experienced in generations, because, as we have seen highlighted in this place, this is a government more than comfortable—indeed, from what it appears, overly eager—to send more than 11,000 debt notices to welfare recipients who received JobKeeper while simultaneously handing out an astonishing $13 billion in JobKeeper payments to companies that actually increased their earnings. This is what we're talking about: we're talking about companies that increased their profits. That's what we're talking about. They didn't need the JobKeeper. They increased their profits during the pandemic. Just think about that—and I really ask the senators on the other side to just think about that: $13 billion to line the pockets of businesses who didn't need the support.

Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands—most probably, millions—of Australians out there who've had their income smashed and are in desperate need of support, a great many of whom this government has ignored. Think about all the Australians who work in the gig sector: struggling, ignored by the Morrison Liberal government, while their industry was shuttered. In many, if not most, parts of the country, it's shuttered again. While the rest of the nation has to deal with cancelled shows, gigs and entertainment and sporting events that ordinarily employ hundreds of thousands of Australians, where is the support for these workers in our creative and arts industries? What about our academics and other university sector workers: denied JobKeeper; tens of thousands of them out of work because of the decisions made by this government—decisions made by Mr Scott Morrison, a Prime Minister who turns the other cheek when millions of Australians need support, because, you know, he doesn't hold a hose—not his problem. But when it comes to corporate welfare for the most successful firms in the nation: 'Hello! Here's a cool $13 billion in cold hard cash, no questions asked. Take it!' (Time expired)