Page 2612 - Week 12 - Thursday, 16 November 1989
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Your deferred pension plan would largely benefit those people who are safe and comfortable in jobs, although it might help overcome some of the problems of ageing and the capacity of other workers. Anybody who is safe in a job is fine, but God help people if they are not.
The restriction of unemployment benefit to nine months shows a lack of understanding of the current nature of unemployment. Long-term unemployed people are less likely to re-enter the work force than those who have been unemployed for only a short time. This is especially true for older workers and other disadvantaged people like migrants and Aboriginals. Yet the proposal also reduces and abolishes many labour market programs which might help increase the employment opportunities among the long-term jobless people.
A tax program is fine for those who have money, for those at the top end of the scheme, but what does it do for the people at the bottom? Do we not want to give them a chance to get there? Do they not have a right to be there, like all of us? We are all sitting very happily in this house. We are all looking very well, thank you, with a good salary and a car to drive. But what about these people at the bottom? Do they not ever have a chance to see the sun? You are talking about the light at the end of the tunnel. They are never going to get a chance to see that light.
Mr Humphries: Money does not solve all problems, Minister.
MRS GRASSBY: No, it does not solve all problems. Does it not matter? Do you just forget about them? I am sorry, Mr Humphries, but I disagree with you. This Government stands for the people who do not have the chances in life. We say, "Let's give them a chance. Let's give them the chance to get there". If they do not take the opportunity to get up there after we have given it to them, then we can feel free to sleep in our beds at night, knowing that we have done the right thing, and look in the mirror when we shave.
Of course, you do not shave, Mr Humphries. We know a hairy man is a happy man and a hairy woman is a witch, and that is fair enough. As I said, Mr Humphries, you do not have to shave and look in the mirror in the morning. But there are a lot of us who do have to look in the mirror in the morning. I want to look in the mirror in the morning and know that I feel comfortable - - -
Mr Stefaniak: You have to do your hair, Ellnor.
MRS GRASSBY: No, I do not have a lot of hair on my face, thank you, Mr Stefaniak. I am very glad of that. I obviously owe that to my Irish ancestry. Mr Stefaniak, if Ned Kelly's mother were alive today she would not let him play with half of you on the other side of the house. Let us get it straight now. A bushranger has nothing on you. You take from the poor to give to the rich and make them richer. I am sorry, Mr Humphries, but I cannot back you on that, nor can I back your Federal colleagues' tax plans.
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