Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Near midnight on Thursday, 6 August, 97 workers who work with Hutchison Ports were informed by text and email that they had been sacked. Forty-one of those people were in Brisbane.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection from those opposite; I particularly appreciate that, and I will pass that on. On Saturday at Curlew Street in Fisherman Islands, I met some of these people; some were from my electorate, and others from all over Brisbane. Some of you may have seen Aaron, who was on the news on Saturday night, standing there with his two-year-old. He is a father of four, with a wife. These employees were told by text that they had been sacked.

To date, the company—and, admittedly, it is a foreign company, and so maybe does not understand Australian values and how we do things here in Australia—has not apologised for texting the 41 Brisbane workers or the 56 Sydney workers about their sacking. But, having walked among the workers and the community people who were out there as part of this peaceful community protest on Saturday, I know that people were heartbroken. Obviously losing their job is heartbreaking, but the way in which it was done compounded the anguish that they were feeling and the uncertainty. I heard, yesterday in parliament, Parliamentary Secretary Michael McCormack make the same statement that it was un-Australian.

So I take the interjections from the member for Mallee and the member for Leichhardt, and I do appreciate those comments. I am sure that you will make comments to the federal employment minister, Eric Abetz, who said that it was entirely appropriate that the company text workers to inform them of their sacking. This is the employment minister, who sets the tone for how employers think they can treat their employees. How could anyone in their right mind think they could do that! I hope they will take back to the party room the anguish that was visited on the workers at Hutchison, who are now getting support from the community. It was Ekka show holiday in Brisbane yesterday. Obviously these families, with their uncertainty, would not be able to take their kids to the Ekka, and so the people pitched in and put a jumping castle and a few other things on the docks so that the kids could at least have some sort of an Ekka holiday treat.

With the uncertainty hanging over these workers, there is more to be done. I know that they have gone back to the Fair Work Commission and that there are currently hearings in place where they are trying to work out what is best to do. Obviously the officials from this company need to understand Australian culture and that we value our workers. They are not just tools or widgets; we value our workers. We invest in them. They are skilled. Irrespective of the side of the chamber, as I heard from the speech of the member for Mallee earlier on, we value the local input, the sweat and the dignity that comes with work. Obviously this foreign company does not have all of that.

The people who have been sacked are abiding by the advice of the Fair Work Commission and working with Hutchison to get the best outcome for these workers. I understand that there is a little bit of competition because Hutchison had Sydney and Brisbane but did not have Melbourne and there are certainly efficiencies with having all three. But I know that the Australian people will be watching closely to see how this is sorted out. The Fair Work Commission can do good work, and obviously the MUA, representing the workers, is currently putting forward that case in the Fair Work Commission.

But I return again to the comments of our minister of the Crown, the federal employment minister. While I was wandering around the docks at Curlew Street, Fisherman Island on Saturday, talking to the workers, talking to people like Aaron, talking to some people from my electorate about how they were going to respond, at that same time we had a minister of the Crown saying it was entirely appropriate that the company text workers to inform them of their sacking. I have not heard the Prime Minister condemn his minister for saying that. I am sure he is a little bit busy with a few other things at the moment such as marriage equality, and I do commend those taking that forward—the member for Leichhardt particularly—but I would hope that the Prime Minister will condemn Minister Abetz for this horrible comment.