Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation. Will the minister update the House on the latest research about the causes of workplace stress? Are there examples that support this research, and how is the government responding to this issue, particularly in the public sector?

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for McEwen for his question. There has been a concerning report released today that finds that a significant and rising problem for working Australians is job related stress. This can cause long-term damage to health. Nothing is more expensive than sending a good worker into stress, triggered by what happens in the workplace. This can take a heavy toll on staff, on families and on the performance of organisations. That is why, where there is stress caused in workplaces by uncaring and deliberate decisions of bad bosses, this needs to be tackled. Labor does not believe it is right and fitting for employers to cause stress for teachers, members of the Rural Fire Service, teachers aides, firefighters, police, ambulance officers, nurses, cleaners, orderlies.

On this side of the House we appreciate what 1.8 million public sector workers do for Australia. We understand that our public servants at local, state and national level deliver services, deliver care, deliver trenchant analysis and deliver emotional commitment and that they work very hard. If it were not for our 1.8 million public sector workers, Australia would not be as modern; Australia would not be as fair. It would not be as flexible, it would not be as safe and it certainly would not be as compassionate. That is why public sector workers do not require the stress of 15,000 job losses in New South Wales. Public sector workers do not require the stress of 20,000 job losses in Queensland and 10,000 in Victoria. And—adding to the arms race—the South Australian Liberals have said, in the last half hour, that they want to get rid of 25,000 public servants.

Indeed, if those numbers do not appal those opposite, let me quote, from the Courier Mail and the Brisbane Times today, the voices of the real people affected by these terrible changes and stress. Lisa Rake, a Queensland public servant, received a yellow envelope yesterday saying that she was excess to requirements. She is quoted as saying:

Newman has stolen my future, that's what he has done.

Bernard White is a 56-year-old nurse at the tuberculosis centre at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. He said:

I can't give up because the amount of money that they are offering isn't enough for me to retire.

Felicity Davis is a nurse at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. She said:

Everybody's really unhappy and everyone in our department definitely feels the same way. It's not right.

Members of the House, one thing is very clear about workplace stress: bad bosses cause stress and fear; Liberal governments cause stress and fear; Liberal governments make bad bosses—or, to put it another way, if we want to do something about workplace stress in Australia, the three biggest causes are Campbell Newman, Ted Baillieu and Barry O'Farrell.