Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for the question. In terms of what will change, it's clear that quite a lot will change because I heard from Senator Cash that these laws are, literally, the most radical changes that this country has seen. The most radical ever is what we're talking about. Two years after the entire nation went into lockdown, apparently people getting their wages moving is the most radical thing the country has ever seen. What will happen? Let me go through what will happen immediately on this legislation passing. Immediately, you will find that job security and gender equality become objectives of the Fair Work Act. That will happen straight away. The sunsetting of zombie agreements will start. We talk about zombie agreements: what are they? There are still people today working under AWAs from the Howard era. There are still people today working under AWAs, and what has happened is that, even though the hourly rate is protected, every penalty rate has disappeared. So there are people now under agreements that would never pass any form of no-disadvantage or better off overall test. They are working on sub-award conditions now. This bill about which those opposite say, 'Everything within it is terrible,' will make sure that people catch up again with what's meant to be the legal rate of pay in Australia. There'll be a ban on job ads which advertise less than the legal minimum rate. Apparently, those opposite think everything in the bill is terrible and that it's okay to advertise for less than the legal minimum rate. In the Senate, as they already have in the House, they'll be voting to keep that rort open.

At the moment, if you have a pay equity case, you need to run the case on the basis that you can find a male comparator. So early childhood educators, in trying to argue that their work should be more valued, had to argue that their work was similar to being engineers. It was an impossible hurdle, and they failed. That's part of the reason that we continue to be unable to close the gender pay gap on these various awards. This bill will allow the gender pay gap to be closed, when you no longer have to argue using a male comparator.

We'll be prohibiting pay secrecy clauses. Those opposite want to maintain a situation where you are not allowed to tell your fellow workers what you earn. We know exactly how that has been used.

Secure jobs and better pay should be possible in Australia. We'll be voting for it. There'll be a majority in the Senate voting for it, and those opposite should own up that they just want to keep wages low.

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