House debates

Monday, 22 February 2021

Bills

Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020; Second Reading

1:21 pm

Photo of Tanya PlibersekTanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020. From the beginning of this pandemic Labor has tried to be constructive, to work cooperatively and in a bipartisan way with the government both on the health elements of the pandemic and on the economic reconstruction that will be required as we come out of this recession. We haven't opposed legislation just for the sake of it. We've suggested things in good faith, and some of those have actually been criticised by the government and later adopted by the government. But we haven't said, 'That was our idea; you can't have it.' We have tried to be constructive the whole way through. Like every Australian, we want this country to emerge from the pandemic both healthy and prosperous. We need to get the health response right and we need to make sure that our economy is in a strong position to grow, that we have jobs and prosperity on the other side of this recession.

When it comes to industrial relations, there was absolute goodwill on this side to work constructively with the government. We said that if legislation improved job security and made it possible for Australians to get a pay rise then we would be all for it. The only thing we said we wouldn't be up for was pay cuts and increased insecurity. Sadly, what we see with this legislation is a government determined to go back to its old song sheet when it comes to industrial relations.

We've got before us a bill that would make our recovery slower and more painful than it needs to be. This is something that Labor can never support, because we will always oppose pay cuts and we will always oppose measures to make work less secure in this country. The problem with those opposite is that their plan for after the pandemic is exactly the same as their plan for before the pandemic—lower pay, less job security and less money in retirement. If you were a cynic, you might think that the Prime Minister is using COVID as cover to do all the things he's always wanted to do, as if the pandemic was an excuse to push through the Liberal Party's dream agenda. Look at what's actually been presented here: allowing businesses to sign new enterprise agreements which leave workers worse off than they were before. Of course the government said, 'Okay, we tried to slide that one through but we've been pinged on that, so we're up for negotiation on this one.' Hang on a minute! So we've got a proposal where the government was trying to argue that we should back legislation in this parliament that allowed workers, after negotiating with their employers, to be actually worse off or no better off after signing their new agreement. It is extraordinary to even think that they tried to get away with the proposal that would get rid of the better off overall test in legislation.

Basically, those opposite have one prescription when it comes to industrial relations. It's always the same answer, and that's wage cuts. That is a disaster for the people who are actually subject to those wage cuts. It's terrible. If you're being asked to work longer hours for the same money, if you're being asked to give up penalty rates, if you're being asked to negotiate a new contract that doesn't leave you better off, that's a disaster for you and for your family. Family budgets, we know, are already under a great deal of pressure. People are struggling. People have been struggling for years to make ends meet at a time of historic low wages growth that is impacting every family budget around Australia.

Don't forget: the very people who would be worst impacted by this are the people the Prime Minister last year was calling heroes. They're the transport workers, the shelf stackers, the hospital cleaners, the people who've been on the frontline of this pandemic. Their reward, according to those opposite, is likely to be a pay cut. They're the ones who kept our economy running and our society safe, and those opposite propose that we reward that heroism with a pay cut. This legislation will make their lives more stressful and their bills that much harder to pay.

This bill is bad for families, but it's also bad for our economy as a whole. We know that while wages are stagnant our whole economy suffers. Unless people have a few dollars in their pocket, they're not going to buy a cup of coffee on the way to work and they're not going to take the kids out for pizza on the weekend. They're not going to create work for other Australians while they are uncertain about their income and uncertain that they'll have a job next week or next month or next year. They're going to keep that money in their pocket. That's bad for demand and confidence in our economy. They're less likely to spend money in their local businesses. They're less likely to spend the money that will mean those local businesses put on more staff and create jobs for other people.

The Liberal Party has this basic notion that if we cut wages enough then eventually employers will put on more people. The problem is that there's no actual evidence that it works this way. Every time those opposite have been responsible for pay cuts for Australians, they've said it will create more work and create more jobs. It just hasn't happened in practice. They've been trying this strategy for years, and for eight years we've seen stagnant wages. When those opposite allowed the cuts to penalty rates in 2017, they said that that would create more jobs, but no-one can point to those jobs having been created. There's no reason to think that this time would be any different.

This is where we have the most fundamental disagreement between us and those opposite. We think that a strong economy depends on good wages and confidence. Those opposite think if you cut wages enough, if you make work as insecure as possible, that will drive economic growth. They ignore the impact of confidence, particularly consumer confidence, on the economy. Good, strong wages are the precondition for economic growth. They are the precondition for confidence. They're not a distant end result of trickle-down economics, as those opposite believe.

I notice that we are very close to having to pause debate on this legislation until after question time. I seek leave to continue my remarks after that time.

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