I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2020-2021 and cognate bills, and to speak about the Leader of the Opposition's and Labor's exciting response to the government's disappointing budget, and how Labor's plans will benefit the Hunter region. I also welcome the opportunity to provide an update on events in Shortland during the recent sitting break.
As I normally do when speaking on appropriation bills, I draw to the attention of the House that, unlike the Liberal and National parties, the Labor Party are not constitutional vandals. We support the passage of these bills.
It should never be forgotten that it was the conservative parties of this country that disgustingly and recklessly held the country to ransom in 1975 and denied supply to the democratically elected government who enjoyed a majority in the House of Representatives. The current Liberals and Nationals are heirs to these constitutional vandals, these so-called defenders of tradition and the constitutional monarchy. What shocking hypocrisy!
In the budget delivered last year, the Treasurer declared that the budget was back in black. The budget he handed down a few weeks ago then recorded the biggest budget deficit in Australian history, with gross debt of $1.7 trillion. Despite the record spending, there is a total failure with no comprehensive jobs plan—a plan that millions of Australians left behind need. The budget was notable not for who was included but for who missed out. Women missed out. Unemployed people over the age of 35 missed out. Anyone in need of aged care missed out.
One of the key centrepieces of the budget is the JobMaker hiring credit. The catch with this—as there always is with this tricky mob—is you have to be under 35 to access it. This is a shocking slap in the face for the 930,000 Australians over the age of 35 who are looking for work. Another of the very disturbing figures is that unemployment is due to increase by 160,000 by the end of this year. This is on top of the 2½ million Australians who are already out of work or looking for more hours in their current positions.
Back on the JobMaker hiring credit: Labor supports the hiring credit being applied to young people. Young people need assistance to get into jobs. But the Prime Minister has been unable to explain why he has excluded 930,000 Australians over the age of 35 who are unemployed. The single largest cohort on JobSeeker at the moment are women over the age of 45. The jobseeker demographics have really changed in the last 20 years, with those over the age of 35 making up the majority. This JobMaker credit will instantly put those jobseekers at a disadvantage in any interview. If you are a 49-year-old person going for a job interview against someone who is 29, you're at a $200-a-week disadvantage in terms of subsidies. I have huge concerns with the way that the JobMaker hiring credit is being rolled out.
In contrast, Labor's priorities are clear, as espoused by the Leader of the Opposition in his budget reply speech: transforming child care; creating jobs now; building things in Australia; and powering our economic and social recovery with clean energy. One of the key parts of the job focus is Labor's National Rail Manufacturing Plan. This will ensure there are more trains built in Australia by local workers and that every dollar of federal funding spent on rail projects boosts local jobs in the industry. This is an exciting announcement for the Hunter region, which has a proud manufacturing history. I was very pleased to welcome the Leader of the Opposition, with my Labor colleagues, to the Hunter the week after the budget to visit workers at Varley, which has been manufacturing in the Hunter Valley for over 100 years. Companies like Varley and their employees, not to mention young women and men who want to learn a trade, would all benefit from this plan.
My first electorate office in Cardiff bordered the Downer train yards—yards that had manufactured trains and rolling stock for decades. Those yards were decimated when successive state governments made decisions to send that work overseas. They managed to hold on to a little bit of work, doing rewelds and corrections of shoddy manufacturing by Korean-trained manufacturers, but that's not the way it should happen. The state government is a disgrace. The state Premier was horribly wrong in saying that Australian workers can't build trains. Australian workers are building trains right now in Maryborough, in Queensland, and in Ballarat, in Victoria, because they are led by progressive Labor governments that back Australian workers. I am so proud that a federal Labor government under Anthony Albanese would do the same. The Leader of the Opposition is a valued friend of the Hunter. When he was the minister for infrastructure he delivered the $1.2 billion Hunter Expressway, which has had a truly amazing impact on improving productivity, slashing the time to travel from the Upper Hunter to the Lower Hunter and Newcastle by hours.
Another major part of the opposition's budget reply was outlining Labor's commitment to $500 million in funding for social housing repair.
This has two tremendous social and economic outcomes: it will improve the quality of life for thousands of Australians who need urgent upgrades, as well as stimulating the economy and getting tradies into work.
I was also pleased to welcome Labor's shadow minister for housing and homelessness to Shortland after the budget. Jason Clare and I and Jodie Harrison, the state member for Charlestown, visited Casie Martin at Windale. She was good enough to show us around her home. What we saw is just not good enough in Australia. Casey's home was in need of urgent repair. There was black mould everywhere, and the New South Wales department of housing was refusing to do anything about it. This is a great example of where Labor's $500 million would improve the quality of life of fellow Australians and put people back into work. I thank Casie for allowing Jason and me to meet with her, and I assure her that Labor will continue for fight for better and more social housing.
These two announcements by Labor, compared to the budget, really highlight the stark choice that Australians have. That choice has been reinforced by the cuts being suffered right now by my constituents in Shortland because of the egregious decision by this government to cut JobMaker and JobSeeker. Their cuts to JobKeeper affect 17,000 residents of Shortland and have cut $15 million per fortnight out of the Shortland economy. Their cuts to JobSeeker have put another $6 million out of the Shortland economy per fortnight. That is $21 million of income going into Shortland businesses that has just disappeared because of this government's short-sighted management of the budget. I think that's a really important point to make.
In my remaining time I would like to update the House on the visits and meetings I have had the pleasure of having in Shortland in the last few weeks. I was very pleased to receive a briefing from Dr Andrew Magee from the Centre for Water, Climate and Land at the University of Newcastle and to be briefed on the model they have developed which predicts tropical cyclones in Pacific nations up to four months in advance. This is much more accurate than the current Bureau of Meteorology approach. I approached the minister for the Pacific to see whether they could get assistance. I was discouraged by the initial response from the minister, and I am disappointed that they have turned down the opportunity to improve the accuracy of forecasting of cyclones, not just for the Pacific but for Australia as well. I am certainly very interested in working on how we can advance this project.
I visited Design Anthology at Gateshead and met with Josh, and also Matt from Tecevo, and heard about the collaboration these two fantastic local manufacturing companies are undertaking. I got to catch up with Jack Erby from St Mary's Catholic College and presented him with a copy of The worldly philosophers, an excellent tome on economic history by Robert Heilbroner. I wish Jack all the best for his future studies. I met with retail workers at Lake Macquarie Square's Coles, Big W and Woolworths to thank them for their magnificent efforts this year in dealing with keeping the stores open during the COVID lockdown and ensuring that the people of Lake Macquarie didn't miss out on vital supplies. Thanks to Deb from the SDA for introducing me to these workers. I have to acknowledge Michelle from Woolworths at Lake Macquarie Square, who has helped to make over a thousand masks for local hospitals in her spare time.
The tourism industry has been devastated by COVID-19. I met with Brett Dann from Hunter Travel Group, and I want to thank Kylie Leadbetter for organising a meeting with a group of local travel agents to hear firsthand what they are experiencing. They were clear to me that the cut to JobKeeper will hurt them and that there has to be an industry-specific package for tourism. I was disappointed that that demand was not met in the budget. This is the industry most impacted by the COVID lockdown. This is an industry that employs nearly 50,000 Australians. They desperately need more assistance, and this government is ignoring them.
Much of Shortland is bordered by the largest saltwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere and the magnificent Pacific Ocean. I have met so many times with locals, through advocacy groups such as Save Our Coast and as individuals, to talk about their opposition to oil and gas drilling on our Pacific coast. It was good to get an update from them, and I was so proud that I could announce my opposition to the PEP 11 Project in parliament last week. The PEP 11 Project is bad for the environment, it's bad for our coastal way of life, and it's bad for jobs.
This has two tremendous social and economic outcomes: it will improve the quality of life for thousands of Australians who need urgent upgrades, as well as stimulating the economy and getting tradies into work.
On Friday last week, I attended the Hunter Manufacturing Awards. I'm so proud that Shortland businesses won so many awards. Congratulations to Sirron Holdings Group, Zexa Chemicals and Ampcontrol, who were joint winners of the Manufacturing Pivot Award, which was presented in honour of the late Rod Murphy. Congratulations to Safearth, who won the Collaboration Partnership Award with Ampcontrol and NewieVentures. These are two great examples of local manufacturers responding to the challenges of COVID. Sirron Holdings have moved from making commercial dishwashers to developing disinfectant and surface treatment that kills COVID on kitchen surfaces. This is incredibly important work that I would like to be out there right now selling around the world, but unfortunately a backlog in the TGA lab means that they are unable to get their claims registered until early next year. I'm working with them to advance that time line. Their claims have been validated by HMRI, which is a world-class laboratory. This is really important work that will help defeat COVID and help drive more jobs in the local economy. Congratulations to Safearth, who, with Ampcontrol and NewieVentures, at the start of the COVID crisis, managed to start producing ventilators for the New South Wales public health system in a week. These are companies that had no experience in building ventilators, but, because of their great skilled engineering and research workforce, were able to turn around quickly after an urgent request from New South Wales Health and started to build ventilators. Thankfully, we haven't needed them so far, but it's a really important part of the COVID crisis.
I also got to meet Dr Matt Dun and his team, who are doing important research into DIPG. DIPG is the deadliest childhood cancer. On average, 50 Australian kids have DIPG each year, but it's responsible for half of the childhood cancer deaths per annum in this country. It is an awful disease where the median survival time is 10 months. It's a horrible disease. We urgently need to do more research into it. I was privileged to meet Matt and his research team and I acknowledge their groundbreaking work in raising the profile of this disease, as well as research and treatment options. I thank Matt for sharing his personal story about how his family was directly impacted by DIPG with the passing of his daughter, which is such a sad and tragic event. Quite frankly, I am in awe of the strength of Matt and his family. They faced this tragedy, were able to build on this tragedy and responded to this tragedy by dedicating their lives to researching and fighting this deadly disease. I want to recognise RUN DIPG, which is raising funds for research. I was pleased to take my children on the run along the Fernleigh Track a month ago. I want to say to Matt, his wife, Phoebe, and all associated with the run: you are doing truly inspiring work and I pay tribute to what you are doing on behalf of the 150,000 residents of Shortland. I also met Dr Larry Roddick, who is the national medical director of Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children. ROMAC brings sick kids from the Pacific to this country to perform surgeries on them and repair illnesses. I want to thank them for what they do. I want to thank Brad Hazzard, the New South Wales Minister for Health, for coming to the aid and reducing the cost of the procedures in New South Wales hospitals. This was a great outcome which went beyond politics. I want to thank Larry, Rotary and Brad Hazzard for the great work they've done.