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

I am a little bit shocked by the minister's contribution, because not once did he mention the words 'Productivity Commission'. Not once did he refer to that lemon of a report that was handed down by the Productivity Commission last week. Why? Why are the government now in hiding about this report? Because it goes after some of the lowest paid workers in this economy. Recommended in this government's Productivity Commission report was a cut in the take-home pay of the lowest paid workers in this economy. We are talking about retail workers and hospitality workers. The government think that is okay: 'Nothing to see here; we're just going to cut your pay.' Another cheeky trick by the government, trying to hide the fact that this is a lemon and they are going after the pay of some of our lowest paid workers.

How low is the pay that these workers earn? Last year the average wage of a cafe worker was $441 a week. There is not a lot you can do on $441 a week, yet the government want to cut their penalty rates on a Sunday. The government are not talking about the Monday rate or the Saturday rate; they are talking about the Sunday rate—the rate on which so many families and workers try to make up a decent pay. As we have heard, the people that that change most affects are the people who are trying to raise families, the people who are trying to pay the bills. These are people—mums and dads—trying to make ends meet, who say it is not the luxuries that will go; it is the kids' sport, the occasional movie. These are the kinds of things that will go for these low-paid workers.

The government are not going after the wealthiest in this country. In fact, they are quite keen to give them tax breaks. They are going after the people who are the lowest paid. The government are also not telling the truth about what the media has dubbed the 'take it or leave it clause'. Why aren't they telling us what they mean by this secret clause to force people to accept a contract which states, 'You can take these conditions of the job or leave it'? That sounds to me a lot like Work Choices. That sounds like we are harking back to the days where people going for a job were told: 'Here's your job. These are the conditions. Take it or leave it.'

This is the agenda of the government. They are not standing up for Australian workers, they are not standing up for jobs and they continue to attack the wages and conditions of employment. They are supporting bad bosses and backing bad bosses. We have seen that just in the last week, with 100 highly skilled dock workers sacked at five minutes to midnight by SMS: 'Check your email. You've been made redundant.' Rather than standing beside these workers and calling out these bosses and saying, 'What you have done is wrong,' rather than being fair and independent, they have backed in these bad bosses. The government's rhetoric is unbelievable. They are quick to stand up and have a go at unions, who are standing with those workers who have been made redundant, but they are dead silent when it comes to these bad bosses. The minister goes further to back them in, saying they are entitled to do that—they are entitled to sack people by text message; they are entitled to sack people via email. It is wrong, and the government should be ashamed at their inability to stand up for these workers.

Whether it is manufacturing, whether it is people working on docks or whether it is people working in retail and hospitality, the government are failing current Australian workers. They are failing to have a plan to secure jobs; they are failing to have a plan to create jobs. Worse still, in relation to the champion of their free trade agreements, the China free trade agreement, it is being suggested that workers will be imported, brought in, and (a) it is not guaranteed that they will be paid the same wages and conditions as Australian workers; and (b) they do not have the same qualifications as Australian workers. You can forgive an electrician or a plumber or a diesel mechanic or a mechanic working in many of the workshops around Australia if they fear losing their job to a foreign worker who does not know they are being imported deliberately to undercut wages.

Just yesterday at an NFF event—of all the events—Senator Bridget McKenzie let it out of the bag when she said: 'Don't worry. We're going to bring in 5,000 workers under the China free trade agreement to do that work. You won't have the high wages cost.' Your own are starting to tell the truth about what is going on under these agreements. The government need to get real and stand up for Australian jobs. They are failing, and Australians will judge them on it.

See this speech in context