Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in strong support of the Fair Work Amendment (Textile, Clothing and Footwear Industry) Bill. This bill seeks to amend the Fair Work Act to ensure appropriate protection and rights for contract outworkers in the textile, clothing and footwear industry. The three major areas of change include: recognising TCF contract outworkers as employees under the Fair Work Act; creating a system that would allow outworkers to go up the supply chain to recover any overdue payments; and adjusting the rules of entry to allow inspection of sweatshops and other potentially suspicious places of employment with little notice or without notice.

Because outworkers are employed in non-business enterprises they often suffer unique challenges. These challenges are exacerbated by poor language skills and a lack of knowledge of their rights under the Australian legal system, as most outworkers are recent arrivals to this country. There is a general lack of knowledge of workplace relations.

I get to see firsthand the good work that people such as Hung Nguyen, an organiser with the TCFUA, do to address the issues of outworkers in my electorate of Fowler. Given that 30 per cent of my electorate is made up of Asians, many of whom are refugees, particularly from Vietnam and Cambodia, there is certainly a market for exploiting those who are most vulnerable, particularly women outworkers. So I personally praise the efforts of Hung and the TCFUA in advocating for the protection of outworkers and for the application of industry-wide standards that will not be undercut by exploiting outworkers.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to attend an event organised by the union, led by the National Secretary, Michele O'Neil, who is in the gallery here today. This was a joint effort by the TCFUA and FairWear, with their spokesperson Shelley Marshall, and a number of women from Asian Women at Work, including the organisation coordinator, Lina Cabaero. FairWear is a coalition of organisations, including Asian Women at Work and the union as well as a number of churches and other organisations that are committed to fighting exploitation of workers, particularly women, in the clothing industry. So when those opposite want to bang on about unions, I wonder whether they take the same stick to those churches and other organisations also working against exploitation—

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