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

Since yesterday, when we mentioned how Aerocare, the great Liberal donors, have been treating their workers like slaves and them like third-class people, my office has been inundated by people in the aviation industry who are feeling this pain. Apparently it is not happening just at Sydney International; it is actually happening right across the country. Everywhere where Liberal donor Aerocare is funding its operations, people are being treated like slaves, and it is unfair and it is wrong. Many people who have spoken to me have told me about how their conditions are so appalling that they cannot believe they are forced to do this in an Australian industry in a place such an international airport.

This was brought up because the TWU has been fighting strongly to ensure that these people get treated fairly and are paid adequately. But we need to ask: where is the PM and his government on this issue of unfair treatment? Nowhere. He does not care. He has never had to work a day in his life. He has never had to worry about what it is like to scratch around for a dollar to put food on the table or to pay the bills, and he will certainly never ever stand up to his big corporate Liberal-donating mates. The ideology of the Prime Minister and his party has been selling workers down the river for years. He has been trying to push away the penalty rates, taking backhanders for years. We are going to continue this fight to stop this from happening. We will not allow Work Choices by stealth by this terrible government.