SENATE

82 SENATE Thursday, 13 October 2016
don't think I can do so at this point. Each contributed to the diverse fabric of our society, just as those who find
their way to Australia by plane or by boat can do, if given the chance.
One fanatic or a handful of fanatics does not equal an entire people, and using fear and suspicion to divide, to
single people out for simply being, is cowardly and self-serving. Fear is not a responsible way to govern, or to
grow a movement. My hope is that all in this chamber will join me in rejecting fear as a weapon of mass
manipulation.
The Australia I want to live in does not rule by fear but is one that builds a better tomorrow. This is an
Australia that nurtures its young and teaches them the real-world skills needed to make their way in the world. It
supports families from school to retirement and cares for our elderly, who must be respected for the contribution
they have made to our communities.
This is an Australia that ends predatory gambling, which lures people with the promise of easy money, where
our children are no longer exposed to gambling advertisements during sports broadcasts and where our
government actually introduces essential, recommended reforms, including the $1 bets that make poker machines
much less addictive. If we are to put an end to problem gambling we need social media sites to operate on an optin
basis for serving gambling ads, rather than bombarding users with hard-to-resist offers. For the 400,000
Australians who struggle with problem gambling or who are at risk of developing a full-blown gambling
addiction, and with $23 billion lost to gambling each year, the government has a duty of care to its citizens, not to
its donors. With the highest per capita gambling losses in the world, this is a massive drain on our collective
wellbeing and one that can, quite frankly, be avoided.
I want to see an Australia which builds an education system that delivers for our young people, a system that is
measured on employability and not simply by NAPLAN or ATAR ratings. An ideal system would ensure students
leave school job-ready and would provide a real, substantial career path for those who choose not to pursue
university. I want to see these young people equipped to fill the shortages in the trades and professions our
communities need, identified through real, very real, partnerships with industry.
The 2015-16 figures from the Department of Employment show just how urgently this is needed. In the last
financial year, 38 percent of apprenticeship vacancies were unfilled. For every vacancy there was an average of 22
applicants, but an average of only 2.4 applicants were considered suitable by employers for the role. Think about
that for a moment. Our young people are graduating from school without the basic skills needed to even apply for
entry level apprenticeships.
Even those who complete university fall into a similar trap. Too often, a student's decision to study at university
is not based on a real understanding of their future career or their personal strengths. Instead, it is based on their
perception of a future career, or the need to just do something or, more than likely, the need to get their parents off
their back. I believe pre-university internships will help students make the right choice and very much lessen the
drain on the higher education public purse. Key to this, of course, is ensuring educational institutions more
accurately match course demand with available jobs and, in the case of many universities, not load up the cost and
availability of specific degrees when the prospect of future employment is limited. Australia already has too many
law graduates, for example, who instead of becoming solicitors end up as baristas. Nick didn't help me with that
one, by the way.
If we are failing our young, we are also failing our elderly. Too often those who contributed to their
communities end their working lives relying on government support that, in some cases, reduces them to living
below the poverty line or making them wait for important surgery or an ACAT assessment or spend months
waiting to find a home or residential care provider that is able to support them.
Building a better Australia for our elderly means we should not be cutting the Aged Care Funding Instrument,
which will potentially strip between $6,000 and $18,000 a year away from individual nursing home residents with
complex and serious healthcare needs. And while the model in its present form is without a doubt being rorted by
some operators, with funding often diverted to non-resident-care areas, the planned blanket cuts will
overwhelmingly punish the majority of operators who are doing the right thing. These cuts will not save money.
They are simply a cost-shifting exercise from the Commonwealth to state governments, which will result in more
aged-care facilities being unable to treat complex healthcare patients, because payments have been slashed. Many
in the aged-care sector will be relegated to the state hospital system, where costs are about five times as high each
day.
If we are to build a better Australia for all we must not let our economy be hollowed out. A strong economy is a
complex economy, capable of harnessing the creative power of the people it supports and driving real innovation
that leads to growth. That means Australia must continue to make things.
CHAMBER