Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to celebrate some Australian heroes that I met in my office yesterday. I met with Esso workers and members of the Australian Workers' Union. I have come in here today to tell their story, because they are Australian heroes. These are unionists fighting for their jobs. They are Esso workers from the maintenance crew. They all reside in Sale, where 220 workers have been told that they can accept lower pay rates and accept a pay cut of between 17 and 40 per cent without guaranteed rosters, through a loophole in the Fair Work Act which allows companies to bring in labour hire companies to employ their workers for them.

These workers are standing up for their safety record. These workers are the maintenance crews that have done so well for Esso. It is an absolute betrayal that they would be in this situation. Of course, it is in the frame where we have growing inequity in this country. Wages are at record lows in terms of growth. An article in today's Sydney Morning Herald quoted Australian Bureau of Statistics data which, on Wednesday, showed that wages grew by just 0.5 per cent in the June quarter in the private sector. This is what these workers are standing up for. It is an outrage.

This is happening across our country; it is endemic. These workers will join young people in my electorate who have only casual work and who have had their work made insecure. The impact on their families and their community will be huge. They are doing what the Reserve Bank governor says workers should do: they are demanding more of their company's profits—not forgetting that we couldn't find a more profitable business than Esso in this country. Their profits are skyrocketing, yet they are actively seeking to drive down the wages and conditions of these workers. So, for me, these men are heroes.

I spent some time with them and talked about their families and the impact on their community. They are from Sale. We know that Gippsland is under enormous stress. We know that there are jobs that have gone already. We know about the paper mill issues. There are issues down in Gippsland that are getting a lot of attention here, but there's not a lot of attention going to the catering staff at Esso who have already been sacked and replaced by people on lower wages.

This is a critical moment in Australia's history. The pendulum has swung too far. We are not just in a situation where wages aren't growing; wages are being driven down. And the impact on the federal budget will be extraordinary, notwithstanding the impact on local communities. These men were concerned. They were concerned that the people in their community might think they were being greedy. Let me dismiss any such notions. They are concerned about their community; they are concerned about their families. I call on their community to stand with these Australian heroes. These workers are not just standing up for their families and for themselves. They are taking the fight to this company for workers right across this country. They met up here with their local member, the member for Gippsland.

I call on those opposite to get behind these workers. This is the core of the issues that we have. I can extrapolate that to my community, with young people waiting for a text message to tell them whether they've got work tomorrow or not. Young people are unable to leave home. Young people are getting no work for a week and panicking about how they're going to pay the rent or the mortgage next week.

It's important to note that these workers are from Sale, too, because I spoke in this Chamber this week about the Dorevitch workers, represented by the Health Workers Union, whose office in Sale has closed. That company has, this week, locked out workers who have not had a pay rise for a decade. These workers are doing exactly what this country needs them to do: they are standing up for fairness. They are Australian heroes. I stand with them and I ask everyone across this country to stand with them. They are acting for justice. Like the Dickens hero Oliver Twist, they are just asking for their fair share.