Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Whilst I welcome the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017, I find it difficult to contain my dismay in speaking to this bill, as I find it outrageous that the Turnbull government have put this bill forward claiming that they are actually doing something for workers, especially after listening to the budget last night, where the Prime Minister and the Treasurer chose millionaires and multinationals over vulnerable workers. The Abbott-Turnbull governments have been dragged kicking and screaming to bring forward any measures to address exploitation of vulnerable workers. Whilst I support the bill, I want this government to note that our fight does not stop here, as this bill falls incredibly short of adequately protecting workers' rights and Australian jobs. Access to a job where workers' rights are protected is a human right. Try as this government may to pretend to be down to earth or one of us, the reality is that this government will never stand up and protect workers, and it will only ever be the Labor Party that will take up the fight for the underdog. It is really too hard for workers to believe that this government has even one iota of understanding of the issues facing average Australians today, especially our most vulnerable workers. It is a bit rich when you have members in the Turnbull government wearing expensive cashmere jumpers and stashing millions in the Caymans.

This bill falls short of Labor's suite of policies and legislative reforms. The measures in this bill simply do not address the extent of worker exploitation, which is of rampant proportions, under this LNP government. This bill does nothing to address combating sham contracting; licensing labour hire companies; shutting down the practice of companies phoenixing to avoid wage liabilities; reforming the Fair Work Act to strengthen protections for workers; criminalising employer conduct that involves the use of coercion or threats during the commission of serious contraventions of the FWA in relation to temporary overseas workers; or making it easier for workers to recover unpaid wages from employers and directors of responsible companies. But what we have seen is the focus very clearly on unions as the enemy. And it is very clear that unions are the only safety net that a vulnerable worker has.

What about the elephant in the room: the huge, gaping hole that affects 700,000 workers, more than 13,000 workers in the Herbert electorate and more than 42,000 across North Queensland? Nowhere in this bill are penalty rates protected. It is clear that the Prime Minister is trying to draw a line in the sand and clearly ignore the rights of hundreds of thousands of Australians who will receive one of the largest national pay cuts since the Great Depression.

The Turnbull government seem to want to Americanise Australia. They want to privatise Medicare. They want to ruin our public and Catholic education systems. And they want a clear class divide where it appears that the rich can get richer and the poor can simply get poorer. If that is not bad enough for the poor, they also want to cut the wages of over 700,000 vulnerable Australians, and 13,000 of those are in the electorate of Herbert.

I stand here today to say to the Prime Minister that the Herbert community does not want an Americanised Australia. We want access to quality health care when we are sick. We want all children to have access to quality education that meets the needs of every individual student. We want a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and we do not want your wage cut.

The member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, said penalty rates were a huge impediment in the Far North Queensland area, wiping out small business and adding to the region's unemployment. Just how out of touch can he be? Every week I visit at least one small business owner. Out of all of my visits since I have been elected, there are two major problems that regularly get mentioned to me, and they are the rising cost of electricity and the cost of commercial leasing. Penalty rates to date have not rated a mention.

Whilst businesses are closing across North Queensland, the Turnbull government and the member for Leichhardt are turning a blind eye to the real issues facing North Queenslanders. If the Turnbull government really wanted to do anything for small businesses in North Queensland, we would have seen the government match Labor's commitment of $200 million for a hydropower station at the Burdekin Falls Dam, a dam that is five times the size of Sydney Harbour. What is good for the south is surely good for the north as well, yet there is no mention in the budget. Instead, this government will continue to peddle its myths and blame the underdog for businesses closing instead of addressing the real issues.

The Turnbull government had better heed this warning. If you do not, and you do not act to protect penalty rates, you can say goodbye to your member for Capricornia, adios to the member for Flynn, bon voyage to the member for Forde and selamat tinggal—that is Malaysian for goodbye—to the member for Dawson.

I implore this government to support Labor's private member's bill, the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take-Home Pay) Bill 2017, which would stop the cuts to penalty rates because we believe in a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. But today's bill is at least a start. Labor have had to leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the Turnbull government to follow, and we will continue to lead the way until vulnerable workers are protected.

Under the noses of this LNP government, there have been shocking allegations and proven cases of worker exploitation and undermined rights. We have all seen the headlines about the disgusting treatment of workers—for example, about Pizza Hut. On news.com, we saw 'Pizza Hut drivers "paid as little as $5.70" per delivery'. On 7-Eleven, in The Sydney Morning Herald we saw 'How 7 Eleven is ripping off its workers'. On the Baiada Group, on SBS we saw 'Foreign workers exploited at chicken production plants'. Multinationals have been making enormous profits by exploiting vulnerable workers who are too afraid, in the main, to speak out.

Every affected worker had to prove that these companies were significantly underpaying them, as if it was not already blatantly obvious. At the moment, it is too hard for vulnerable workers to prove that they have been underpaid where the employer fails or refuses to provide pay slips. This is a significant imbalance of power, which should be addressed by placing the onus on the employer who has breached the act by failing to keep proper records to prove that the worker was paid correctly. The onus of proof should be reversed so that the accessories to a contravention of workplace laws, such as the franchisors, are required to establish that they did not know or could not reasonably have known about the contravention. This is stronger than the test in this bill, which places an evidential but not a legal burden on franchisors. As elected representatives, surely it is our duty and responsibility to ensure that everyone is given a fair go. We must enact legislation and be the measure of balance to ensure that no-one is being exploited. The Turnbull government must do more. They need to do more.

Although, I overall support this bill, I attach to my support an addendum that more needs to be done to protect vulnerable workers, and it starts with protecting penalty rates. In my electorate of Herbert, where unemployment is now at 11 per cent and youth unemployment is nearly at 20 per cent, we have many vulnerable workers who are not even getting an opportunity to engage in the employment marketplace, let alone have their working rights protected. This is simply not good enough. We have young people who have no access to an apprenticeship, because there are no jobs where apprenticeships are offered to them. We have an aged care industry where we know that people are being paid appallingly low wages. For most people working in the aged care industry, if they do not get to work on a weekend where they can get their penalty rates, they are forced to work two or three jobs. The same thing applies in the childcare industry. It is simply not good enough. I urge this government to take every step that it possibly can to ensure that we are protecting the most vulnerable citizens in our community.

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