Madonna Jarrett (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

My dad got up every morning and was at work by seven or 7.30 at the latest. He worked overtime. He was on call regularly, and quite often he got home when I was going to school. He worked hard. When he got home he told stories of his day. Sometimes maybe there was an injury; maybe there was a fight with the boss. More often than not it was a great day doing what he loved: being a sparky. He knew what he would bring home in his pay packet most weeks, which helped mum plan for meals and buy medicines and schoolbooks.

But part of his working life also included the infamous Queensland SEQEB dispute. Basically, that dispute was an attempt by the South East Queensland Electricity Board to replace permanent workers with contract labour. The Electrical Trade Union members went on strike to defend jobs and security, and, not long after that strike began, the government declared a state of emergency. It rushed in a series of anti-union/anti-strike laws, making picket lines illegal. The dispute stretched over the following months, and the striking workers held out with a lot of community support. My parents were involved in that dispute. They were on the picket lines and were part of the community that coordinated food and financial support for families who were affected. As children, we saw the tears and the hardship facing mums and dads when the workplace and industrial system broke down and when the community those workers had created was threatened.

This is just one story based on the memories of me as a small child whose family relied on her dad having a safe and fair workplace. There are many more such stories, and that's why we need workplace laws that promote such values—and that's what this bill, the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026, is about. There is dignity in work. On average, we spend about a third of our lives at work, and that equates to roughly 90,000 hours. While this reality often sparks discussions about work-life balance, meaning, purpose and burnout, employment can also provide critical financial independence, social cohesion and a sense of purpose.

According to the ABS, there are currently 14.73 million people employed in this country. Governments can play an active role in making sure workplaces are safe, jobs are secure and wages are fair. In this government's first term, workplace reforms have been the most significant since the Fair Work Act commenced almost 17 years ago, and these reforms have delivered on our objectives to promote job security and gender equality, get wages moving, improve workplace safety, and address loopholes that have undermined fairness in the workplace. Some of those key industrial relations achievements include criminalising wage theft. It is now a crime to intentionally underpay workers. You can get penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines of almost $8 million for businesses. There's a right to disconnect. We can go home from work. Employees can go home from work and they have a statutory protection to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from employers. Pay secrecy clauses have been banned and the gender pay gap has been driven to a record low. Minimum-wage earners have seen historic boosts, resulting in substantial increases to hourly rates and the nation experiencing multiple consecutive quarters of real-wage growth.

More recently, the government supported the 4.75 per cent increase in the modern award minimum wage and a six per cent increase to the national minimum wage, which means national minimum wages will now be almost $1,005 per week, or $26.44 an hour. This month, the government also announced a $3.6 billion, two-year extension to the work retention payment to continue subsidising a historic 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators. Starting in July, the payment will also be available to family day care and the home care sector. Combined with minimum-wage adjustments, this ensures a typical full-time educator sees an increase of $255 or more per week compared to December 2024, with teachers receiving up to an extra $410 per week.

The Fair Work Commission's landmark work value cases have delivered award wage increases for approximately 400,000 aged-care workers, with further phase pay jumps rolling out for nurses and direct care staff. There have been changes to help the gig economy and labour hire protections. New standards ensure same job, same pay for labour hire workers, and they've introduced a baseline protection and standard-setting powers for gig workers. Laws have expanded the scope for multi-employer agreements, helping small businesses and workers in fragmented industries negotiate enterprise agreements collectively. The government changed the definition of 'casual employment', offering clearer pathways for casuals to convert to permanent roles should they desire to do so, and we saw the abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission.

These are big changes that the government has implemented since coming into power in 2022, and with this bill our government builds on those reforms with a package of practical measures to further improve the operation of the workplace relations system and to support more cooperative and productive workplaces. These include amendments designed to: enable the Fair Work Commission to more effectively perform its vital function; support good-faith bargaining which delivers benefits for employees and employers alike, not to mention for our economy; ensure road transport contractors can access protections with the new fit-for-purpose high-income threshold'; clarify reporting requirements for the CFMEU administration; and support the effective operation of important tripartite advisory bodies in the workplace relations system.

This bill has six important administrative measures which will streamline the operations of the Fair Work Commission to assist it in managing its workload. The commission plays a critical role supporting workers and employers, setting minimum-wage conditions, approving workplace agreements, and resolving disputes between employers and employees. The government remains committed to ensuring it continues delivering efficient dispute resolution services for both workers and employers. The first measure removes the need for a formal hearing to decide whether an applicant in a general protection case has been dismissed. Instead, the commission will now be able to hold a conference aimed at resolving the dispute, saving time and resources for the commission, workers and their bosses. Second, the bill enables the president of the commission to delegate certain responsibilities to staff. This includes issuing basic things like certificates confirming that parties in a general protection dispute have made reasonable efforts to resolve the matter, but were unsuccessful. What these certificates do is allow the cases to move forward to consent arbitration or court proceedings. This delegation will help ensure the president and staff's time is used more efficiently.

Third, the bill grants the commission greater flexibility to decide matters on papers without requiring a formal hearing or conference and, where appropriate, with the parties' consent. Fourth, it strengthens the commission's ability to deal with vexatious or frivolous applications, including the power to prevent individuals from lodging further claims without permission. Fifth, this bill allows the commission to dismiss unfair termination and unfair deactivation applications that are frivolous or vexatious or lack reasonable prospects of success. Finally, this bill simplifies the process for obtaining supported bargaining authorisations. This change will reduce administrative burdens where a new agreement largely covers the same employees and employers as an existing one, provided the application is made within the specified timeframe of three months before or two years after the previous agreement's nominal expiry. It also allows the commission to remove employers from an authorisation, either before or after it's granted, if their circumstances have changed. All these changes may seem small, but together they will make the system fairer, easier and more efficient, not just for workers but for their bosses as well.

Bargaining is another critical component of our industrial relations system. It allows businesses and employees to design unique working arrangements like specific rostering or flexible work-from-home rights and allowances—things that fit the exact operations of the business. Again, this is good for workers, but it's also good for the business. When this government came into office in 2022, it inherited a bargaining system that had long been ineffective. In fact, participation had declined to a point where fewer than 15 per cent of employees were covered by a current federal enterprise agreement. Reforms implemented during the government's first term have revitalised the system, removing barriers and making it easier for employers and employees to negotiate agreements that suit their workplace and needs. As a result, there are now a record number of employees covered by enterprise agreements delivering genuine wage growth for workers alongside increased productivity and flexibility for employers. This is a good thing for workers, their bosses and our economy.

The bill also introduces measures to support the use of good-faith bargaining through Commonwealth spending. It enables government procurement and funding decisions, where appropriate, to give preference to employers that have negotiated agreements in good faith and with genuine agreement. Despite what the member for Flinders was saying, importantly, this bill does not mandate this approach. Decisions on when and how it should be applied are carefully considered as part of the development of the secure Australian jobs code, alongside existing requirements to ensure value for money and the delivery of high-quality, timely outcomes. All Commonwealth entities will continue to operate in accordance with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules and the Commonwealth grant rules and guidelines.

I now want to cover two key sectors that are also covered in the bill. The first is road transport contractors. In 2024, this government introduced new protections through the Fair Work Commission for truck drivers and small road transport businesses, safeguarding them from unfair contract terminations and inequitable contract terms. Our truck drivers drive our goods around our country; we need a viable transport system. However, access to these protections is currently restricted by a high-income threshold, and, due to the significant operating costs faced by road transport contractors—such as fuel expenses and vehicle maintenance, particularly for long-distance owner-drivers—the existing threshold does not adequately reflect their circumstances. This reform will establish a separate, more appropriate high-income threshold for road transport contractors, ensuring hardworking Australian truck drivers and small transport businesses can access protections against unfair termination and unfair contract terms. This recognises that truckies have high out-of-pocket costs and conventional high-income thresholds are not fit for purpose. We will consult on what the new threshold should be.

Second is the reporting requirements for the CFMEU. The Australian Labor government acted decisively by legislating for the appointment of an administrator to the Construction and General division of the CFMEU. This government will not tolerate corruption, criminality or violence in any workplace, and that includes the construction industry. The union movement doesn't want this either. But what we will tolerate is a strong and effective union movement that looks after workers and stops them being exploited.

You can tell from the story I started these comments with that I am a proud unionist. I come from a union family. I see what a positive difference they make to individuals and their families. The problems we see in the construction industry are not the norm in the union movement. They've been there a long time, and they will not be solved overnight, but the government is taking decisive action. Mr Mark Irving KC has made significant progress in improving the culture of the construction industry and addressing criminality and corruption with the CFMEU, and this bill provides the administrator with an appropriate timeframe to prepare and submit the required biennial financial report to the minister under the Fair Work Act.

Lastly, the government has strongly supported cooperative and productive approaches to workplace relations, including through tripartite arrangements that bring together employers, workers and government. One such tripartite body is the National Construction Industry Forum, which provides advice to the Australian government on matters relating to building and construction, a big part of our economy at the moment. The bill makes minor updates to the ministerial memberships of the NCIF and allows travel allowances for non-ministerial members to be determined in line with Remuneration Tribunal determinations. It also confirms that Road Transport Advisory Group members are eligible to receive travel allowances consistent with other consultative bodies and clarifies that ATAG members, including the chair and the subcommittee members, are not otherwise entitled to remuneration or additional allowances.

Our landmark secure jobs, better pay bills and closing loophole reforms laid the foundations for a strong and efficient industrial relations system, and this bill builds on that. This bill reflects the government's ongoing commitment to ensuring our workplace relations framework supports cooperative and productive workplaces, the kinds of workplaces that work for businesses, for workers and for our economy. Labor is the party of workers. We're proud of that. The Australian Labor Party was born out of the labour movement. We will always stand up for working people, and I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context