Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): The year 2020 has not been an ordinary year.
Collectively, our state, our nation and indeed our world are facing the most extraordinary and far-reaching challenge we ever have faced.
No Victorian has been left unimpacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
One day in the future we may look back on this year—reflect on it, analyse it, come to terms with it.
But right now, we are living it.
Right now, lives and livelihoods are on the line.
We must prioritise the health and safety of Victorians, and that means making the investments necessary to fight the pandemic and to restore our economy.
This bill provides some measure of certainty in a hugely uncertain time.
Over the coming months we will need to be agile and prepared to respond to the health and economic emergencies that are still evolving.
That means using the strength of our economic position and leveraging it to our best advantage.
Victoria was in a strong position before the coronavirus: a surplus for the 2019–20 budget year was projected, the 12th Labor surplus in a row, and our AAA credit rating was affirmed by both Moody’s and S & P.
This means we are in a strong position to take the unprecedented action needed to get us through this pandemic.
In good times, government’s role should be to generate opportunity and harness our potential. More critically, governments must be there when things go wrong.
What is clear in all of this is how important it is to have governments that place fundamental value in social safety nets, in a properly funded health system, in workers rights, in the opportunity afforded by education, in the right to safety and in economic security.
Those are the things that Labor has always fought for. They are more important now than ever.
And what has been laid bare by the coronavirus is the importance of leadership—trusted leadership.
Through moments of crisis we see trust tested—and here in Victoria, not just through the pandemic but through the horrors of the bushfire season, we have seen it well and truly pass the test.
In Victoria we have seen a government that has acted decisively, and in return we have seen a community that has answered the call.
Victorians have made tough, heartbreaking decisions to practice social distancing in order to protect their families, their friends, their neighbours, their loved ones—and people they do not know at all.
Businesses and livelihoods have suffered.
Children, parents and grandparents have had to adjust to radically different arrangements.
Birthdays, marriages and celebrations have been forgone.
Grieving has had to happen without the comforting arms of our dearest.
We have asked a lot of Victorians.
We will stand with Victorians, because that is the partnership of trust that will see us through.
On that note I offer my sincere thank you, on behalf of my community and personally on behalf of my family, to our Premier and to the Minister for Health, to the entire cabinet and to our chief health officer.
The devastating scenes we have seen around the world have shocked us and filled many with apprehension about what could unfold here.
What has been entirely notable here in Victoria is the unity of purpose which has meant that Victoria could act with a speed and certainty that has been instrumental.
Together, we—all of us—are making a difference. We are flattening the curve. We are saving lives.
But the reality is that the compounding impact of this pandemic will be far-reaching, and that is why this bill is vital.
The bill provides the government authority to keep responding to this crisis, making available $10 billion in 2019–20 and $14.5 billion in 2020–21 for direct response to the coronavirus and the economic recovery.
They are significant amounts, and we may not need to use the totality of them.
But we need to be in a position to be able to respond rapidly and at scale to a situation that is highly volatile and evolving quickly.
So these amounts are a safeguard to ensure we can continue to support every Victorian who needs it and build a bridge to the other side of the pandemic, because lives in my community and across Victoria have been immensely impacted by the cost of social distancing efforts required to stop the virus spreading.
Jobs have disappeared. Businesses have closed their doors. For many the certainty of being able to put food on the table or a roof over their heads has been lost.
I keep hearing the statement that this virus does not discriminate.
But of course it does discriminate.
When the economic cost of the restrictions is not borne equally, it discriminates.
When some enjoy the safety of working at home and others do not, it discriminates.
When health or age vulnerabilities heighten someone’s risk, it discriminates.
That is why is it so important that measures are put in place to minimise the impact on all Victorians and to safeguard those who are most vulnerable.
That is why it is vital to have governments that, as I said, place fundamental value on social safety nets—not just trickle-down economics.
Already we have boosted our healthcare system by $1.9 billion for vital beds, equipment and expanded ICU capacity.
Our $1.7 billion economic survival and jobs package is helping thousands of businesses and workers.
Five hundred million dollars has been set aside to give much needed certainty to residential and commercial tenants and landlords.
We have injected $260.8 million into our TAFE sector to keep skilling up Victorians, directed $59.4 million to vital mental health services and there is another $43.2 million to make sure women and children escaping family violence have a safe place to go.
But not all levers are available to state government.
And that brings me to the federal government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy.
Thank goodness for the federal Labor Party, thank goodness for the union movement—without which we may not have seen the federal government act to put this wage subsidy in place.
The JobKeeper payment will mean that many will financially survive this health crisis. But it could be better.
Thousands of casual employees have found themselves on the wrong side of the eligibility requirement to have been with the same employer for at least 12 months.
In my community that hurts. It hurts because it fundamentally mischaracterises the very nature of casual employment. It disregards the conditions under which many unwillingly find themselves, and it sidesteps the insecurity that many already faced.
Ordinarily my community is home to thriving retail, cafe, dining, bar, arts and music venues.
There are many, many casual workers. There are many migrant workers. There are many international students.
JobKeeper leaves so many in my community out in the cold.
On their behalf I wrote to the federal Minister for Industrial Relations, joining the calls of my friend the federal member for Cooper to have the federal government properly include casual workers as part of JobKeeper.
We will not give up that battle.
It will take years for our state to recover economically and perhaps many more so for us to recover psychologically.
We will ask a lot of Victorians—and, rightly, Victorians will ask a lot of us in return.
This bill delivers the funding necessary to protect lives and livelihoods. Because, make no mistake, we will fight for every single one of them—every single life, every single job. every single business.
It fills me with pride that in my community I am seeing acts of kindness and camaraderie in a joint effort to do what is needed to protect ourselves and each other.
Amidst the challenges so many are facing our community has pulled together and banded as one.
There are no words to express my gratitude to the workers keeping us safe, supplied and cared for. Whether you are a nurse or doctor, a teacher or childcare worker, a cleaner or carer, staffing the supermarket, keeping the coffee flowing or volunteering at a charity—thank you.
To those facing hardship right now—and I know there are many—please reach out for support. We see you, we hear you, we are with you.
I commend the bill to the house.
