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

I am proud to rise in support of my comrades, because it has only ever been the union movement and Labor that have looked after the working person. It will only ever be Labor and the union movement that will protect the working person from the relentless and shameful attacks of the Turnbull government. The working conditions that workers, including members of the Turnbull government, enjoy today were hard fought for and won by the union movement. Paid annual leave was first won after a campaign by the Printing Workers Union in 1936.

The Australian unions fought an intensive campaign for paid parental leave which resulted in the victorious introduction of the Paid Parental Leave scheme by the Gillard Labor government. Superannuation is another union victory. Prior to 1986, only a select group of workers were entitled to superannuation, and it became a universal entitlement after the ACTU's national wage case. Then there was the campaign for penalty rates. In 1947, penalty rates were established. Unions argued in the arbitration commission that people needed to be paid extra money to work outside of normal hours, and the union battle rages on today to keep penalty rates.

Unions have delivered redundancy pay, meal and rest breaks, sick leave, health and safety, workers compensation, shift allowance, long service leave, uniform allowance, unfair dismissal protection, collective bargaining and awards reform. If it weren't for the unions, more than 800 workers in my electorate of Herbert would be without their fair entitlement guarantee payments after the closure of Queensland Nickel—a guarantee that was created by Labor and attempted to be restricted by the Abbott-Turnbull governments.

Workers in my electorate will not forget the disregard of this government when they needed action and protection from a greedy businessman. It was the Minister for Employment, Michaelia Cash, who was dragged kicking and screaming by the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, the Electrical Trade Union and the Australian Workers' Union to release a fair entitlements guarantee, which was rightly owned by these workers.

Now more than ever, workers, Labor and unions are facing one of their toughest battles—the Turnbull government. It's a government that stands up for top hats, not hard hats. It's a government that puts big business first and the worker last. It's a government that puts profit before people. The Turnbull government, together with One Nation leader, Senator Pauline Hanson—who votes with the coalition 84 per cent of the time—are out to undermine and attack Labor and the union movement. They are determined to weaken the mighty union movement, whose aim is to save jobs and protect fair working conditions. Our next fight is to stamp out inequality—an issue that this government does not seem to understand and refuses to address. Inequality is at a 70-year high. More than 105,000 people are homeless, 32,000 unemployed people live in poverty, and wage growth hasn't been this low since the retention of records.

Since 1975, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has collected data on earnings inequality. Profits went up 40 per cent, wages less than two per cent—real wages growth of 72 per cent for the top 10 per cent. In 1975, the top 10 per cent of earners earned twice as much as the bottom 10 per cent, but by 2014 they were earning three times as much. If lower wage earners had enjoyed the same percentage gains as the highest-paid, they would be $16,000 a year better off. The richest one per cent of Australians own more wealth than the bottom 70 per cent combined. For every dollar that a male earns, a female earns 82 cents. Six hundred and seventy eight corporations paid no tax; 48 millionaires paid no tax. Let's just put that into perspective: the subcontractor working on the construction of the Townsville stadium, the university student working at Zarraffa's Coffee, where penalty rates have been cut, and workers like teachers, nurses and electricians have all paid more tax than multibillion-dollar companies. And what does the Turnbull government do? It gives big business a $65 billion tax cut.

Shamefully, the Turnbull government is completely out of touch with working families. Inequality and wage growth for workers will never be addressed by this government. It is only Labor and the union movement who will fight for working people. This government knows the facts about low wage growth and inequality. But instead of working with Labor and the union movement to address these issues, this motion is put forward—the complete opposite of what is actually required. But workers, Labor and the union movement will do what we do well when we're under attack. We will stand up and we will fight.

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