Page 1384 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
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By taking away people’s capacity for reasonable compensation, we are actually saying that this business sector or that community sector or somebody over here will bear an unequal burden, a greater burden than the community as a whole. That is what the Canberra Liberals oppose. That is why we are opposed to this legislation today.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong—Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Corrections and Justice Health, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety and Minister for Mental Health) (5.29): It has certainly been a challenging few months for our community. If, last year, one of us had stood in the chamber and told us that in 2020 we would all be required to stay home for three months due to a global pandemic, I suspect most people would have thought we were a bit crazy. But we have all travelled a long way together since 11 March ,when the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.
The world went into varying responses, and we can all be a bit proud that Australia has been one of the best responders in the world. Although we are also very lucky to have been off the main paths for the initial COVID spread, here in the ACT our community has, on the whole, responded exceptionally well to the government’s restrictions to protect our community from COVID. This can be seen in our low case numbers, with any new cases now only coming from people returning from overseas.
COVID-19 has affected each and every person in the ACT. The wholesale community action required has meant that we have all had to change our lives in some ways. For some of us that has been a lot of change and for others not so much. Whether it has been adjusting to working from home, perhaps caring for children or supporting them through school while trying to work, closing the doors of a business for an indeterminate time and, most sadly for some people, losing a job entirely, those impacts have been felt in many ways across our community. Essential workers have had to continue to go to work each day with increased risks of exposure to the broader community and, of course, higher risks of contracting COVID.
For most people it is understood that universally it has been a period of stress and uncertainty and that this is impacting on people and our lifestyles in different ways, both financially and emotionally. The Greens are certainly acutely aware that COVID-19 and the impacts we are all experiencing have posed a significant challenge to the mental health of many in our community, through isolation and significant disruptions to our lives, livelihoods and lifestyles.
Across Australia, governments have endeavoured to support people through this difficult period in a range of ways. Federally, support payments have been designed for people who have lost their jobs, either through direct support, through JobSeeker, along with a COVID supplement—this was clearly necessary, as we all know that the previous Newstart payments were not enough for people to live on without falling far below the poverty line—or through support to employers to maintain their staff through the JobKeeper scheme for businesses that have lost significant income through this period. These are only coarse support mechanisms which, unfortunately, leave some cohorts of people falling through the gaps.
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