Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since the change of government, there has been no shortage of attacks on trade unions but I want to commend one trade union, United Voice, on its publication Real Voices for Change, done on the basis of contributions from no fewer than 26,000 of their members about what matters to Australians. They have identified cost of living, health care, job security and retirement incomes as critical issues.

When they talk about cost of living, their members have identified low wages, housing unaffordability and the cost of utilities. I have got to say that resonates with many of the things that I have heard from my own constituents.

One of the themes from the people surveyed, such as a paramedic from Victoria, was:

From a single mum in Tasmania:

From a public education worker in Queensland:

They believed that things would be getting better and in fact they are not getting better; they are getting harder. This is a theme that I talked about last week in the grievance debate. One of their members, David Arthur, working in security in Victoria, says:

I commend United Voice on this initiative.