Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I agree with one thing that the previous speaker said, and that this is a serious issue. It is a serious issue because this government has tried to use the stunt of red-tape repeal day to hide some pretty nasty attacks on good working people, including their own cleaners. What we have seen from this government since they got elected is three fabulous stunt days, where they have stood up in the parliament and said that they are making it easier for business. What we have actually seen in the paperwork that they have tabled, in the bills we have seen before the House and in the regulations that have been put forward by various ministers is that the bulk of it is about trivial things—like changing full stops and commas, correcting misspelling of words—which they claim are great red-tape repeals. That has been the bulk of their work. But what have been hidden in those thousands and thousands of pages are some pretty nasty attacks on low-paid workers.

The first example that I would like to expose and talk about is the government's own cleaners—the cleaners that work here at parliament. Prior to this government's red-tape repeal day, its very first, the cleaners were paid in accordance with the Clean Start guidelines and principles. What this government did on that first red-tape repeal day was, basically, abolish those guidelines. It abolished those guidelines for all of its cleaning contracts, so then the contracts of cleaners who were being paid in accordance with the Clean Start principles had to go with cleaning companies that were paying the award. What it meant for some of the hardest working people in this building, yet the lowest paid, was that they would have pay cuts of up to $7 an hour. That meant that these low-paid workers would struggle to be able to pay their bills.

What we had from the Prime Minister at the time was a denial that this would happen. The Prime Minister denied that these changes would strip between $172 and $250 from the pockets of these full-time cleaners. The Prime Minister said it was not going to happen and that it was a Labor scare campaign. The Prime Minister stood up in the parliament and said he wanted to make it absolutely crystal clear that no cleaner's pay would be reduced as a result of these changes. The Prime Minister either lied on that day—he either lied to the parliament; he either misled the parliament—

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