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

It might help if I explain what's in the ad. The ad claims that the labour hire loophole is going to affect farms and therefore is going to affect prices at supermarkets. That's the argument in the ad. I thought, 'Well, hang on; the labour hire loophole only applies if you have an enterprise agreement.' How many farms in Australia have an enterprise agreement where this loophole could possibly be used? Certainly there are some, but, to work it out as a percentage of the industry, I went to the regulatory impact statement that was prepared independently for the bill. I'll admit here that there are rounding errors, but, for the sector, where they say 'proportion of employees on enterprise agreements'—so there'll be a rounding error here; it's only to the nearest one-tenth of one per cent—the figure is 0.0 per cent.

So I thought, 'What could it be that they're opposed to in the bill, if they're not affected by the one that's in the ad?' It's not exactly gig economy work. So many of the casuals are itinerant; they'd never qualify for the casuals exemption. But there is one part the bill closes down that is a real problem in agriculture, and it is wage theft. That is the measure most relevant. Take cases of people like Kate, who was paid $4 an hour to pick oranges and who went dumpster diving to get food at the back of a Coles because she wasn't earning enough money.

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