Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today is a great day for workers and for families. Today all working Australians should take note of the monumental changes that are taking place in this House. But there are a couple of things in particular that we ought to note and that workers ought to note—that is, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Clearly, while the Liberal and National parties were tossed out of government last year on the back of Work Choices, which was clearly rejected by the Australian people, they are still in favour of Work Choices and they have learned no lessons. Still at the core of the beliefs of the Liberal and National parties of the old and tired government of previous years is the belief that wages should be kept very low. They still believe in keeping the rights of workers to an absolute bare minimum of just a few, and they still believe in removing the voice that workers have in this country. That is at the core of their belief structure.

At the core of our belief structure—and why this is so important to us and why so many if not all of the Labor members in this place have spoken, or will be speaking, on the Fair Work Bill 2008is that Labor believe that there should be fairness in the workplace and fairness in wages. There should be a safety net, there should be protection for working people and families, there should be a fair umpire and there should be a balance between rights and responsibilities. For my thinking, I could not imagine why you would want it any other way. Why would any forward-thinking, decent person not want another person to have a fair go—a fair go in the workplace, a fair go at the core of the Australian spirit and a fair go in the way they earn their living? All that working people in this country ask for is a fair opportunity and a chance to get a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work.

That is what is at the core of the Fair Work Bill 2008, which Labor is introducing today. It brings fairness back into the workplace once and for all and it ends the Liberal Party’s Work Choices laws. Workers’ jobs were less secure under the previous Liberal government, and we want to return security to people. If you consider the economic circumstances that we find ourselves in today, then it has never been more important. I suppose that it is, in part—although it may not have been in the planning—some relief for Australian workers that, as the global economy turns down, they can at least have some confidence in the back of their minds that there will be a safety net, that there will be basic rights and protections that will go far beyond what was stripped away under the previous Liberal government.

With the introduction of this bill we see a new, fair and balanced workplace relations system and the re-establishment of a strong safety net, a real safety net, that draws a line under which people cannot be taken advantage of. That was a key failure of the previous government. I know that, leading into Christmas and with the potential for job losses as the global economy turns down—and in reality we in Australia may face some of that downturn—workers at least will know they have a fair workplace relations system back in place.

The interesting part about what delivered the change of government and the Rudd Labor government—and I believe this was at the very centre of us winning a lot of marginal seats and of causing workers to come back in large numbers to Labor—was that workers understood the difference between political parties in this country. When we go out and talk to people in the community, we often get criticised—and I understand that criticism—that we are all the same. I know, Mr Deputy Speaker Schultz, that you and others often hear at community meetings that we are just all the same. Well, last year workers decided that we were not all the same—that one party stood out, a party that decided that they would put the interests of working Australians ahead of ideological interests—and they put their faith in us. I am very proud to stand here today, because we are repaying the faith and the trust that working Australians placed in us in a whole range of areas. Most importantly, for working families in Australia, we are repaying that trust by delivering for them a fair and balanced workplace system that allows them to get on with working, looking after their families, educating their children and providing for those under their care, while having the confidence that there is a government and a system in place—a set of laws—that will look after them. I think that is something that they clearly understood at the last election.

We were given a clear mandate. The Australian people spoke in large numbers and with one voice. The coalition, however, misunderstand—or refuse to understand—what the Australian constituency voted for in late 2007. They remain, and I believe will forever remain, the party of Work Choices, because I know, as I think the Australian people know—and as I believe coalition members know—that at the very first opportunity to reintroduce Work Choices with all its ugliness, they will do so, whether or not they have a mandate for it. When they were returned to government in 2004, they had no mandate and no policy that was understood by the electorate or was explained to the electorate on what they might do regarding Work Choices, but that is what they delivered. Because of that they were thrown out of government.

For the then Howard government it was a tired old dream of industrial relations that harked back to a tired old era, but times have changed and we have a new government. We will follow through on our commitments. There will not be any excuses of core and non-core promises; there will just be delivery of the promises that we made to the Australian people. No longer will it be okay for someone to be sacked for no reason. No longer will workers be offered a take-it-or-leave-it Australian workplace agreement which gives them no option. No longer will they have no access to penalty rates. No longer will they be denied overtime, public holiday pay or workers compensation. No longer will they be prevented from collectively bargaining as a team, and no longer will they be ignored by their employer. That was unacceptable. It was unacceptable in the true sense of what is a fair go in Australia, and it was unacceptable for the Australian constituency. It was unacceptable to us as a Labor Party, and it is unacceptable to us as a government, and that is why we are introducing a fair work bill.

I talked earlier about the opposition having not understood or comprehended the magnitude of the feeling amongst working people in this country. They already show signs of failure on their own side to remain of one voice, be it right or wrong. Already there are members of the opposition who have clearly indicated they will not be supporting the Fair Work Bill—that they will actually divide with their own party and their own leader. There is no unity in the opposition. There is no sense of fairness in the opposition. They do not speak with one voice. They are divided as a party and they are divided on the issue of workers’ rights. In the end, that is their failing. Those on the opposition side who are honest actually declare their hand. They wear their hearts on their sleeves, and for that I will not criticise them. I will criticise them for their ideology and for what they believe is the right thing to do by workers—when clearly it is the wrong thing—but I will not criticise them for being honest. However, I know there are a whole heap of others who sit there dishonestly and, at the first opportunity, would reintroduce the Work Choices laws but will not declare it in this place. They would not dare declare it because they know that, if they really told the truth about their intentions to the Australian people, to their constituencies, they would lose the support of their electorates.

What is even more telling about the people in the opposition is that the very architects of this legislation sit on the opposition benches. They have not changed their view. The member for Higgins, who wanted to take Work Choices even further, is waiting in the wings for the opportunity not only to come back but also to reintroduce Work Choices—and probably a nastier version of the one that workers in Australia experienced. Not only have we got that but we have John Howard’s former IR adviser, now the member for Mayo, trawling down the hallways, sneaking along, waiting for the day when he can reintroduce his own failed architecture for Australian workers. I am sure he has decked out his new office with the mountains of Work Choices propaganda—all that memorabilia!—that is left over from the failed campaigns that were meant to mislead and deceive the Australian people. But the Australian people are not fools, and they fully understood what was being done to them.

What the Australian government is trying to do is strike the balance between fairness in the workplace and providing economic prosperity—making sure that you strike the balance between having workers properly and fairly treated and giving business the opportunity to get on with business. The government is making sure that the Australian economy works in those respects. We did not do this on our own. We did it with extensive consultation. We did that to provide a fair, flexible and productive outcome. We consulted with workers, unions, employers and people right across the community. That is why they support the changes that we are putting forward. In the end, if you are going to respect the rights of people in the workplace, you need to talk to everybody in the workplace.

I do not understand the ideology of the opposition, which at its very core denies ordinary workers and families the right to a fair day’s pay, to union representation, to collectively bargain, to a voice and to an opportunity to prosper along with the Australian economy. Ordinary workers and families should not be left out of the nation’s prosperity. When business is succeeding, they should succeed as well. In summing up, what we have delivered today is a clear, transparent and much simpler industrial relations system which delivers not only for Australian workers but also for the Australian economy. I congratulate the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and all of the workers and campaigners out in the community who tirelessly went out there and helped make sure that we could repeal the Work Choices legislation. I wholeheartedly commend the bill to the House.

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