Hansard debates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows)

Catastrophic events change politics. An invisible virus has grown into a pandemic monster. COVID-19 is a scourge without cure, infecting people and laying waste to jobs by the millions, forcing the global economy onto life support. This brave new world produced a unique event in Victoria’s history.

State Parliament’s emergency sitting today is to pass legislation to allow the Andrews government to potentially borrow up to $24.5 billion to save lives and livelihoods.

Historical context matters. Victoria’s 1850s gold rush underwrote the Marvellous Melbourne era, and this imposing building at the top of Spring Street was home to the first Australian Parliament in 1901. An adolescent nation’s concerns about conscription, Australians fighting in the First World War, land booms and financial busts were robustly debated in these chambers of classical Roman design.

When the influenza pandemic of 1919 killed more people than the so-called war to end all wars, the Victorian Parliament was sitting nearby at the Royal Exhibition Building, ominously converted into a makeshift hospital to accommodate the growing number of patients. To avoid the spread of coronavirus, which is proving more mysterious, elusive and fatal than the flu, the number of MPs sitting in each chamber today has been significantly curtailed.

The symbolic corridor of power between chambers was bereft of the hubbub of a normal parliamentary day. Former prime ministers and constitutional combatants Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser once formed a unity ticket supporting Australia becoming a republic, and their campaign speeches filled Queen’s Hall. Gough tugged his forelock, bowed and mischievously declared, ‘Ma’am’, in deference to the cold marble statue of Queen Victoria. Parliamentary guides tell of Her Majesty’s disapproval of her portrayal, which was banished to the Antipodes, a historic precursor to social distancing. To comply with contemporary social distancing requirements I have written this contribution on an iPhone and submitted it remotely via email. It feels bizarre to make contributions on such important and historic events in silence instead of standing in Parliament delivering full-throated conviction.

Heartbreaking news overnight of the worst loss of life in the history of Victoria Police cast a shadow of grief over today’s sitting, a chilling reminder of the risks our first responders and essential workers take in protecting the community, not just in crisis but even on seemingly mundane shifts.

The Treasurer was blunt. The economy will get worse before it gets better and there may be up to 270 000 jobs lost in Victoria, he told question time. His blueprint for recovery, once the coronavirus has been controlled and suppressed, also addresses the impact of Australia’s unprecedented bushfires as we grapple with responses to back-to-back existential threats.

Victoria’s priorities are that unprecedented times require unprecedented action. The Treasurer has outlined the Victorian government’s priorities:

We need to prioritise the health and welfare of the Victorian people first and make the investments to fight the pandemic and to restore the economy afterwards. The budget parameters we had previously need to change to meet these new circumstances. Debt will need to be increased. This is the case for governments around the world. We are comparatively well placed to deal with the increased debt.

Victoria was in a strong position before the coronavirus: we were projecting a surplus for the 2019–20 budget year, 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.

Governments at the federal, state and territory levels delayed their budgets this year due to the uncertainty concerning the impact of the coronavirus. The situation is too volatile to develop reasonable estimates on which to base a budget. It is unclear what will happen to the economy in the next few months and therefore the level of expected revenue. Demands on the budget to respond to the health and economic emergencies are also still evolving.

The immediate future is going to be traumatic on people’s lives and livelihoods. In summary, this bill provides another six months of funding at 2019–20 levels, plus 2.5 per cent indexation, and the annual capital appropriation. The purpose of this appropriation bill is to provide the government with authority to keep responding to this unprecedented crisis as well as keep the usual business of government operating until then. The general appropriation bill also includes some additional flexible funding. This is for extra expenditure for direct response to the coronavirus and the economic recovery.

The amounts reflect the severity of the crisis—$10 billion in 2019–20 and $14.5 billion in 2020–21. These amounts are not estimates of the expenses we will need to meet; we are not in a position to make that estimate, the Treasurer has declared. These amounts are defined as a safeguard. They are to make sure the Victorian government can respond quickly and at scale. We have witnessed how fast and unpredictable the impact of this pandemic can be. The government needs to ensure Victorians are supported as this crisis unfolds.

This is similar to the approach the Australian government has adopted. Their supply bill earlier this year included a $40 billion fund for the same purpose. I support the strategy to go hard and go early. Confronting death clarifies. Fault lines in societies and the fragility of existence have been exposed across the world. Deaths are mounting. Recession is coming. Depression is feared. When time is critical, a staggering price is paid in lives and treasure for delays. Evidence trumps dogma. Scientific disbelief has finally been suspended amid unprecedented peacetime investments being legislated and lockdowns enforced.

Victoria has already made significant investments to support our health system, businesses and households to continue while activity necessarily slows down to prevent the virus spreading. These initiatives feature:

an additional $437 million to the health system for extra beds and equipment, extra funding for emergency departments and intensive care units, additional resourcing for pandemic containment activities and support for workforce continuity;

a $1.7 billion economic survival and jobs package, which includes payroll tax refunds of $550 million, a Business Support Fund of $500 million and a Working for Victoria Fund of $500 million;

a $1.3 billion injection for expanded ICU capacity; and

a $500 million package aimed at giving certainty to residential and commercial tenants and landlords.

This supply bill also ensures important infrastructure programs can continue in the safest way possible. This is vital for jobs now and in the economic recovery. The Andrews government has driven the biggest construction agenda Victoria has seen. This is important for our economy, the recovery phase and future productivity. The government has been working closely with industry and unions to ensure we protect workers’ safety and jobs, including the 115 000 working across Victoria’s Big Build and other projects in this unprecedented infrastructure program.

Disasters demand a new dawn. National security is critical and bipartisan. Countries and cities scrambling to procure life-saving equipment and essential supply chains define why Australia must make niche, advanced manufacturing an utmost priority. Revitalisation zones are needed to attract more investors to repurpose manufacturing engine rooms which underwrote prosperity after World War II and Australia’s record run of uninterrupted economic growth.

Creating opportunity from adversity is a cause I have pursued for decades with unflinching purpose, and my challenge, issued five years ago in Victoria’s largest selling newspaper, is more urgent now for economic resurgence and social cohesion. We have the chance to turn adversity into opportunity, to develop industries for the future, to create new jobs for the next generation, to address housing affordability and to replace anxiety and fear with hope.

Attracting investments from Australia’s more than $3 trillion of savings in superannuation funds for affordable housing for first responders and essential workers is a proposal I will continue to campaign to deliver. It would also address intergenerational unfairness by providing new opportunities for first home buyers.

Reconstruction will require enlightened federalism—a new era of consensus based on evidence and cooperation. The good news is we have made significant progress on collaboration. Securing the Australian government’s commitment to city deals for Melbourne’s north-west and south-east provides mechanisms across all tiers of government and business to leverage opportunities such as the $500 million private investment into the Ford Motor Company’s sites.

Australia turns to Broadmeadows in times of profound challenge. Ford’s Broadmeadows site is emblematic of change after deindustrialisation. New proposals include harnessing technology for a major hub for cheap, clean energy. The ebb and flow of history points a way to recovery. Diggers, light horsemen and Victoria Cross winners were trained and dispatched from the Maygar Barracks to fight nation-defining battles at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, sacrifices we honour this week on Anzac Day. The old army camp has evolved into a logistics hub for fighting bushfires. Leading company on the Australian Securities Exchange, CSL manufactures life-saving blood products across the road. It began life as the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories when an island continent feared devastation from the pandemic a century ago.

Preventing future dangers underscores the need to build greater resilience into the social determinants of life: health, lifelong learning and connecting the disconnected to opportunity. Parliament’s kitchen underscores this understanding. I have witnessed parliamentary staff dressed from head to toe in protective clothing loading vans at the rear of the house with crates of food for the Salvation Army to distribute. The kitchen has cooked more than 30 000 meals during the pandemic for homeless Victorians. This is a practical, real-world contribution to the community, and I commend everyone involved from kitchen staff and management to the Presiding Officers, the President of the Legislative Council and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. 

This is a humbling reminder of how that miser fate can turn, the fragility of life and why we must all be in this together.