E&OE TRANSCRIPT DOORSTOP MELBOURNE MONDAY, 20 JANUARY 2020

January 20, 2020

BRENDAN O’CONNOR, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT, INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND SMALL BUSINESS: Thanks very much for coming. I just wanted to, if I could, respond to the Government’s announcement to support small businesses in fire affected areas of this country. As we know we have gone through a very terrible time. A very terrible time for people in these fire affected areas. It is very difficult for small businesses, for farmers, for people that have lost their homes, lost other dwellings and most of all, of course, the tragic loss of life that has occurred as a result of these fires.

Before I get into the announcement, I just again on behalf of Labor want to pay tribute to the firefighters, the volunteers, those communities that have bonded and bandied together to respond to these horrific fires - fires that are bigger, that are more intense, that are moving faster than we have seen for many a year. And that's why the response has to be so quick too to deal with the devastation.

Frankly, to date we have been concerned with the speed by which the Government has moved on some of these matters. Now, today Labor welcomes support to provide to small businesses in the form of $50,000 grants or up to $50,000 grants. And, indeed, supports the loans that will be low interest loans up to $500,000. These things should help small businesses, but I want to be very, very clear here, this has to happen as soon as possible.

There is a need for speed when it comes to dealing with small business. Small businesses in this country rely on cash flow and already we have businesses in this country that have been affected by fires for months, not just days and not just weeks. And as a result of that, we know that there are businesses on the edge of collapse. In fact, I'm advised there are businesses already contemplating closing down. Those businesses that rely upon accommodation, tourism are so badly affected and can't see a way forward need support from federal, state and local government. And, frankly, need support from all Australians to visit these affected areas, if safe to do so, as soon as possible. We join the Government and invite Australians whenever they're taking holidays to think about these areas and think about visiting them over the course of this year.

I also want to pay tribute, or acknowledge, the efforts of larger businesses who have said they're going to hold conferences and have other events in areas that were directly affected. I want to say this too, I think it's incumbent on commercial landlords and energy suppliers to reduce or delay the need for small businesses to pay for those very expensive costs. The problem we have now with small businesses is they have no revenue in some cases, or little revenue or reduced revenue, but their bills keep coming in. So for that reason, of course, we welcome the announcement, but we need to know the following questions. First of all - how quickly will this money get to those small businesses? Secondly - who does it apply to? And the fact is it talks about directly and indirectly affected small businesses, but it's really important that small businesses know whether they can actually access this support. And, therefore, there needs to be clear guidelines.

Now, having looked at the Government website, I have yet to see any guidelines, any parameters, any detail, any forms to fill out for small businesses to make application for either grants or loans. That has to happen immediately. It is already delayed and, therefore, it has to happen immediately. As I said, there's a need for speed when it comes to supporting small businesses or it will be too late. They don't have the wherewithal to last for weeks and months without sufficient revenue. Those that know about small business know they work on small or very tiny margins and, therefore, the support has to get to them as quickly as possible. We need to know the answer to those questions and Labor is willing to work, of course, with Government. If there are any changes required in Parliament to support businesses and small businesses, we want to be there.

The other thing I want to know is this, to date, we welcome the fact there's going to be some support for volunteers for their wages that have been lost - up to $6,000 for those employees who have been employed by small businesses. But we are concerned about the amount of casuals and permanent part-time workers who may lose their jobs. Those workers spend all their money in those communities and that's a double-whammy for those communities because not only are their businesses suffering, if there's no wages, no expenditure, you see a decline in stimulation of the local economy which will compound this very difficult challenge for these regions of this country.

So firstly, I make very clear we welcome the announcement, we want it to move as quickly as possible. We need to provide the advice. For example, the announcement talks about 10 financial advisors and yet there are, as I'm advised, up to 192,000 businesses in these affected areas. Now, clearly 10 financial advisors will not be enough to provide the advice that these businesses need to get the support they're after. So we'd have to say to the Government, you might have to look at that issue again.

Further - there needs to be boots on the ground. We need the resources in the affected areas. Yes, people can help from Canberra and they can help from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, but they need to happen in the regions. They have to be with the businesses, talking to them at the place where their businesses exist because otherwise you're going to have a disconnect.

And again I call upon the Government to set up a business taskforce as happened in 2011 with the Queensland floods to ensure that the engagement is ongoing. Because this is not going to end in days or weeks or possibly even months. This will go on for some time. These communities are hurting. Small businesses are in deep trouble of going to the wall and we need the Government to step up.

And, of course the final question we do have of the Government, and we're talking to small businesses ourselves, and we have been listening to small businesses for the last six months, but I have to say in this new year, we'll be focusing on the listening tour talking to bushfire-affected small businesses is what is it they're doing? What else do small businesses need that hasn't been mentioned in this announcement? We really have to listen closely because as the Government likes to say - small businesses are the backbone of the economy. Well, we better protect this vibrant sector of our economy, not just for those small businesses, but the people they employ, the communities that are the beneficiaries of their business.

Before I take any questions, I just need to, as I have been asked earlier, I need to just make a comment on the conduct of Minister Bridget McKenzie in relation to the grants that she dealt with prior to the election.

It is clear that there is corruption, political corruption, involved insofar as the conduct of the Minister in dealing with these applications. There's no doubt that having looked at what's been said by the auditor, the Auditor-General, that is, we have a problem with the way in which the Government has dealt with this matter. It's clear that they have politicised and corrupted the process for political gain. And that, of course, has been dismissed this week by Scott Morrison. But the fact is Scott Morrison clearly would have known the way in which these grants were dealt with because he was the campaigner in chief for the Liberal Party at the last election. He would have been going around spruiking the benefits of these grants and it's hard to believe he was not aware of the processes that were involved, at least to some extent.

So he should firstly, stand aside his minister for her conduct which is unconscionable and indeed in breach of her ministerial code of conduct. He must explain fully to the Australian people his role or his involvement and his knowledge insofar as these applications were concerned because they were used for political and electoral purposes during the election campaign and he was campaigner in chief. It beggars belief that he was not aware, at least to some extent, about the way in which those matters were managed by his minister given he was so much involved in the announcements and references to those announcements when campaigning, that’s another thing I needed to add.

If I could just finish, we need to move very quickly as a country in response to these devastating fires. People are hurting. I was in Kangaroo Island last week. I want to thank Dion and Linda Buick who took me around to the most devastated, most affected areas of Kangaroo Island talking to farmers and small businesses, they are hurting. The stories I heard, to fight fires, the stories of survival I heard were quite harrowing and heroic. What they need now is a government that will step up for them. That’s why it is important that we see that happen effectively and quickly because if that doesn’t happen we are going to see further devastation of an economic kind which would be a terrible thing given what they have already experienced to date.

Happy to take any questions.

JOURNALIST: What sort of support would you like to see for businesses indirectly affected by the bushfires?

O’CONNOR: Well I think firstly we need to look at who are we looking at to support here, to whom are we providing support. Of course first and foremost you look to those businesses which have lost their businesses because of fire. They’ve lost their businesses, their shop or their general store or part of their business has been burnt as a result of fire. That would be the first response, to deal with that. They may have lost their home and their home may have been their collateral for their small business, if you think about it that way too. Thousands of homes gone and we need to make sure we respond to that for small business.

Secondly, what we shouldn’t do is assume that if your area wasn’t evacuated that somehow you are not affected. In fact I spoke to Susan Templeman, the Member for Macquarie this morning. She has restaurants and cafes in her electorate where the fires didn’t directly hit, but because of the fires in the Blue Mountains, nobody came, no patrons came to those businesses.

JOURNALIST: Do you think she should qualify?

O’CONNOR: I believe that those businesses that have lost their revenue as a result of the failure, or as the result I should say, not of the failure but the result of those fires, should be properly considered, absolutely. I think it’s the same with the general store in Vivonne Bay on Kangaroo Island. I spoke to Michelle the general store owner, whose general store’s still standing but Vivonne Bay was evacuated. The people both domestically and internationally saw the fires on Kangaroo Island and cancelled their accommodation and cancelled their visit. That has had a massive impact on that general store in Vivonne Bay and that has to be, surely within the parameters of support, given that it’s a direct result of the fires, even though the general store is still standing. And because there was no one there she had to, in fact what she chose to do, which is typical I think of any good community member was she gave up her stock, her food to the firies, to the volunteers because there was no customers but also that was her typical community response to the crisis.

So I’d like to see, and Labor would like to see that the parameters be as wide as possible to look after those businesses, and remember in looking after those businesses you’re looking after workers too, who rely on those businesses for income.

JOURNALIST: Was the 45% emissions reduction target too ambitious? Was it a mistake?

O’CONNOR: Look, I think the leader Anthony Albanese has answered that question, we’re reviewing all our policies, we made-

JOURNALIST: Do you agree with him?

O’CONNOR: Can I just finish the first question you put to me? We certainly are reviewing our policies, but we will make decisions on all of these significant matters well before the next election. What we do need to know though, there’s a public spat now between the Prime Minister and a State Liberal MP in New South Wales where the Prime Minister has said he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Well that fact is, there’s a fight within the Liberal Party for its soul, it’s been going on for some time now in relation to climate change.

There are some knuckle draggers who don’t believe there’s a correlation between global warming and human induced climate change. They don’t believe the science effectively. You have Scott Morrison at least not sure where to go on this. We know Malcolm Turnbull lost his job because he tried to actually get a compact, an accord within the Liberal Party on these matters. So there’s a civil war going on now within the government, the Liberal Party and indeed with its coalition the Nationals and that is impacting upon our economy. It’s impacting upon a whole range of things, including being prepared for fires. And that’s why we talk about making sure that they’re fire ready to fight the fires.

There are longer term issues like climate change but there are other issues that need to be done to make sure we’re better placed. But when you have such discord within government that has unfortunately, had an impact, an adverse impact on policy pronouncements by the government. As for our position, as I’ve said, we’re the Opposition. We believe in the science. We believe in taking action but we’ll obviously review those policies as we said we would and we’ll make announcements before the election.

JOURNALIST: What sort of targets do you have in mind? In Victoria here they’ve set a zero emissions by 2050.

O’CONNOR: We’ll mention all of those things when we make the announcement, but what we’re not going to do is make half an announcement. We made very clear after the last election. We lost the election. We accept that. The Australian people have spoken. We lost the election. We made clear that we would review our policies. That includes our policy on carbon emissions. We’ll make those announcements before the next election but we’re not going to make half announcements at today’s press conference.

JOURNALIST:  There’s a growing concern around dust disease such as silicosis, should there be more protection for stone masons?

O’CONNOR: I am very concerned about lung disease and silicosis not only for tradespeople in businesses and building sites but also the ‘do it yourself’ guys at home who are breathing in some terrible toxins and are not being properly informed. We have a bit of an epidemic now going on because much of these materials are being used at home not on building sites and for that reason people are not as mindful or not being as advised as they should about the effects to their health. So we would ask the Government to provide more support in educating, informing people. And that’s not just the Federal government, it’s the State governments too, providing support, consumer advice to those people particularly at home but also for those on building sites, of course we worry about the occupational, health and safety effects of some of these new materials which in fact in many ways are more dangerous because they’re more refined the product once they’re cut. They get into your lungs and you can be sick very, very quickly.

JOURNALIST:…(inaudible)   synthetic (inaudible) material?

O’CONNOR:  I have to say it should be used for purpose and certain products should be used based on the advice but we are concerned that people are not protecting themselves and sure we might need to look at what products are too dangerous but right now we need to be informing people about the products they use and tell them to use them in a manner in which they’ve been advised by health experts.

All good? Anything else? No? Thanks guys.