Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

is talking down to and insulting Australian workers. We have seen that recently. Not surprisingly, we have seen that in relation to his comments about retail workers who gave evidence to Labor's Fair Work Taskforce in Launceston on 1 July. The minister responded to those retail workers by saying they were union stooges and they were liars—he put out a media release effectively saying this.

Let me remind the minister, and the member for Bass and government members generally, that these workers are genuine workers and they presented testimony to the Fair Work Taskforce in relation to how things would affect them if they lost their Sunday penalty rates. In relation to what Sunday penalty rates mean to them, one of the workers said: 'It's the occasional movie, the occasional dinner. That's it.' Another said: 'It's making sure that my 14-year-old gets to play his basketball. It's paying the bills that fortnight because I pay my bills on my penalty rate week. That's when it happens.' Another said, 'I pay for my son's football on Sunday, and it contributes to the full-time day care of my daughter.' These are the things that really matter to ordinary workers, and the government has shown no sympathy whatsoever for these workers. We believe it is absolutely critical that the government clearly outlines what it wants to do in relation to employment conditions and what it seeks to do in respect of penalty rates. We would not want to see two classes of workers in this country—high-paid workers receiving penalty rates, and low-paid workers receiving cuts. That is not at all reasonable.

We also know that the government has no plans for future jobs. This side of the parliament knows that 75 per cent of the fastest growing occupations will require skills in science, technology, engineering and maths. It is Labor that believes that we need to invest in these skill areas, in research and innovation and to build and sustain the jobs of the future. What do we see from those opposite? An attack on the union movement, an $80 million witch-hunt and an attack on conditions of employment for low-paid workers. We have grave concerns.

If you are really committed to industry and committed to jobs, you have to care about these workers and you have to care about these people. You have to care about Australian industry and its workforce. You would not refer to decent low-paid retail workers as union stooges and liars if you cared. You would not be an apologist for an employer who decides to sack its workforce by text, if you really cared about workers. You would not surrender important local employment protections when negotiating trade agreements if you cared about local workers. You would not blame the crew of an Australian vessel for their employment conditions who had to hand over not only that vessel to a new crew in Singapore but to also hand over their jobs as well. Have we seen any sympathetic remarks or any concern for any of these workers? No. We have seen nothing from the Prime Minister, we seen nothing from the Minister for Employment or from any other frontbencher of this government because they have a callous disregard for ordinary working people who are trying make ends meet. For that reason they need a jobs plan and they need to commit to fair workplaces and fair workplace laws.

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