Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There have been a number of very important reports by the ABC—in particular, 7.30, Lateline, and Four Cornerswhich have highlighted for the public's benefit and for the benefit of this House some of the really concerning practices now going on in Australian workplaces. And we are not just talking about some corner deli or some backyard operator or somewhere at the very end of a very long subcontracting chain in the clothing industry, where we once found these sorts of breaches of workplace laws—not that that excuses them. We are now finding them at the heart of the food production chain, not very far away from our major food producers, from our major retailers. That is a great concern to the Australian public. In particular, we find the egregious use of contract labour and the abuse of people who are on either 417 backpacker visas or 457 skilled migration visas. Both these visa categories are now subject to practices that no Australian, whether conservative or progressive, Labor or Liberal, would fail to be concerned about.

The member for Hinkler was here before, and, to give him his due, he was on Four Corners calling the public's attention to these issues, asking the government and the ombudsman to act. That is a credit to him, but it is not a credit to the government that they have no speaker on this motion today. It is not credit to the government that they do not have much to say on this. And it is not a credit to the minister, who hides behind the workplace ombudsman and simply says, 'Well, I'm not going to comment on any of these issues.'

We are now seeing very concerning findings by the workplace ombudsman on these issues, and they are backing up the concerns raised on Four Corners, on Lateline and on other ABC programs. I commend the statement of findings to the House. We should all read it, because it outlines a set of arrangements that are just not fair—verbal agreements from the extensive list of labour hire operators which source most of their workers though 417 working holiday visa holders through Taiwan and Hong Kong. I would suggest that this is an abuse of that visa category. These are not people who are visiting our country for the purposes of a holiday but, rather, are caught up in an intricate web of labour hire operators, both here in Australia and back home in Taiwan and Hong Kong. These people are being manipulated and underpaid—paid per kilogram of poultry processed rather than per hours worked. That has the effect of employers not paying night shift penalties, not paying weekend penalties and not paying public holiday penalties.

We have six principal contractors that are subcontracted to seven other second-tier entities, and then further subcontracting down to up to 34 separate entities in total—no written agreements, and a model that was based on 'trust'. During the course of that inquiry, four of the six principle contractors and 17 of the other subcontractors ceased trading. So what we have here is a major Australian company, Baiada Poultry Pty Limited, having its whole supply chain literally collapse as a result of an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman, and that should concern every Australian.

We have recently had exposes on Australia Post contractors where not only were they treating workers appallingly but there were very interesting practices going on in regard to vocational training. We have seen Thomas Foods International the subject of claims in The Weekly Times. This is a very concerning matter. It undermines the integrity of our immigration system, it undermines the integrity of our workplace laws and the government need to act. They should set up a task force and they should put some resources behind it. (Time expired)

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