Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Of course, making sure that Australians have decent wages and conditions has been at the heart of what our government have done in our first term and continues to be what we focus on today. In fact, we have in the Senate our penalty rates bill to protect penalty rates. It is disappointing that those opposite have been playing with delaying tactics in the Senate to stop allowing those workers to get the protections they deserve.

When it comes to flexibility at work, our government put through laws in the last term that allow workers to request flexibility at work, whether that's the location of where they work or, indeed, how they might have a span of hours, such as compacted work weeks. We believe that we need a strong safety net in this country. There is flexibility for workers and unions as well as employers to get together to organise what works for them. We will continue to make sure protections are in place within the laws but, importantly, encourage enterprise bargaining, where many of these conditions are put into place.

One of the key things that our government wants to achieve is to ensure that there is more enterprise bargaining in this country. It fell to a record low under those opposite. I am very, very pleased to report to the House that, as of today, there are more workers covered by enterprise bargaining than ever before in history since enterprise bargaining was first introduced. That is because we have been absolutely focused on getting workers and their unions back to the bargaining table with employers to deliver better wages and better conditions.

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