Page 1391 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
significant potential administrative impacts not only for the government but also for those people who are encouraged to apply for compensation. There would be, I have no doubt, people in our community who would be encouraged to put significant resources into legal and administrative measures to apply for compensation under the scheme that Mrs Dunne proposes that would then be wasted if their applications were unsuccessful. Of course, that would be their right, if that amendment were to get up, but I do not think that it is the right thing to do. I do not think it is the fair thing to do. I can assure Mrs Dunne that it is absolutely my position that, as I said to her when we talked this through and when I emailed her to advise what the government’s position would be, this is not a decision that we have taken glibly or lightly.
We did have an amendment drafted because we wanted to fully understand what the implications of making an amendment to reflect the Victorian scheme would be. Once we fully understood those implications, we made an informed decision that this would be the right way to go, the fair way to go and the only responsible way to go when it comes to protecting the territory budget to ensure that everybody affected by COVID-19 can be supported fairly and that the government can continue to provide the critical services right across our economy and our community that we do every day. We will not be supporting Mrs Dunne’s amendment.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.56): I seek leave to move an amendment to this bill that has not been considered by the scrutiny committee.
Leave granted.
MRS DUNNE: I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 1407]. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the Prime Minister, the Hon. Scott Morrison MP, has consistently said that we are all in this together. He said that we must fight the crisis together and that together we can beat it. On the whole, the Australian people have responded to this very positively. The result is that Australia has been one of the least affected countries in the world. Mr Morrison has put his words into action at government level. The commonwealth government has launched a wide range of programs to support and stimulate the economy, keeping people in jobs and keeping the economy ticking along.
As a result, Australia is one of the best performing economies in the world, even in these circumstances. The JobKeeper program, the enhanced JobSeeker program, and now the JobMaker program are examples of those initiatives. The establishment of the national cabinet, too, was an example of Mr Morrison’s “all in it together” mantra. Through that mechanism, the states and territories have launched their own programs to stimulate their respective economies.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video