Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Which bill currently before the parliament deals with the urgent issue of wage theft at restaurants?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. I can tell her that, right now, the Attorney-General is drafting laws to deal with criminalising worker exploitation and, on top of that, there are bills in the parliament right now that deal with the wage theft occurring in the union movement through workers' entitlement funds. I will tell you what this scam deal of the unions does.

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

You don't like this answer, do you?

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The members on both sides. The Minister for Health—Minister for Health. The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a very specific question. It went to an issue which is of great concern in the community: the rip-off of people who are working in restaurants. The Prime Minister should address that question. He might refer to Mr Calombaris's restaurants and the millions of dollars. There are a few issues. MasterChefpeople know about it.

Mr Porter interjecting—

How about you answer the question?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House. The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. I'm not going to call the Prime Minister straightaway. I think I'll be dealing with this issue reasonably frequently. And, yes, it was a tight question, but the policy topic the Prime Minister is dealing with is wage theft, and I can detain the House very early. I'm listening to the Prime Minister. Provided he's on the policy topic, I believe he's being directly relevant, and I'm going to hear the Prime Minister and he can continue.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition with a capital 'O' might like to understand this: that the bill that is in the parliament at the moment deals with workers' entitlements: funds paid into workers' entitlements funds held by unions, which ensures that, when they are in a position to have their entitlements paid out—that is, their wages, about which it doesn't matter whether you're working in a restaurant or anywhere else—the dividends from those funds aren't paid off to other unions, which is the practise of those unions.

Now, the Labor Party might not want to recognise that what they are doing in supporting that practice is thieving workers' wages.

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Gorton is warned.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's what the Labor Party is doing by supporting practices of unions which are thieving workers' entitlements from those funds.

Now, on the matter that the Leader of the Opposition also raised, in relation to the Calombaris matter, that matter was exposed by the Fair Work Ombudsman as a result of the $10 million of extra funds we put into that organisation to ensure that that matter could be exposed. An enforceable undertaking then was secured through the action to protect the workers. On this side of the House, we know whose side we're on; it's the Australian workers' side. The Labor Party—who knows whose side they're on. They weren't on the side of tax cuts for Australians, they weren't on the side of farmers dealing with drought and today, we understand, they are only on the side of militant unions.

Gladys Liu (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister please update the House on how the government is on the side of Australian workers to help them and their families get ahead?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question, and can I commend the member for Chisholm, the first Chinese-born Australian woman to be elected to this parliament, who gave her maiden speech here yesterday in what was an historic moment for this parliament, which I'm sure all members would agree.

I want to commend the member for her excellent speech yesterday, particularly in speaking Mandarin to the Australian Chinese community and to mark that moment. In that speech yesterday she said this, that she was elected on the mandate that if you have a go, you get a go. No-one exemplifies that better than the member for Chisholm. The member for Chisholm knows that she was elected on the basis of ensuring that Australian workers get a go. I'll tell you how they're getting a go: more jobs; the highest level of employment participation of the working-age population in this nation's history.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Restaurant workers get a go too, you know. What about penalty rates? Do they get a go?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McMahon will cease interjecting.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On top of that, there is tax relief for all Australians who are working hard, tax relief that the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party have sought to oppose, in this place. At the election they opposed it, seeking only to put more taxes and higher taxes on Australian workers, saying to them that they shouldn't keep more of what they earn. I have already, in my previous answer, referred to the actions we're taking to ensure stronger penalties for those who engage in wage theft. They've increased 10-fold under the legislation our government has put in place—the increased resources we've put into the Fair Work Ombudsman, the criminalisation of worker exploitation, for which laws will come forward from the Attorney-General, shortly, and the Minister for Industrial Relations.

It does beg the question. Australians know whose side we're on, when it comes to Australian workers, and their entitlements and their jobs and their earnings. They know where we stand. But where does the Labor Party stand? Firstly, we've got the Labor Party in this place opposing laws which will ensure unions cannot siphon off the earnings of workers' entitlement funds and just spread them willy-nilly to their other union mates. That's like having a union super fund paying the earnings of your superannuation to another union. That's against the law, and this should be against the law also. We also know that they oppose laws that will boot out serially offending union officials from breaking the law just like company directors were.

The Leader of the Opposition says he wants to get rid of John Setka from the union movement. We're only trying to help you here. There's a law here, you can vote for, to ensure that John Setka gets booted from the union movement, and the Leader of the Opposition turns his back on those laws and he turns his back on hardworking Australians.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Wills has the call.

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting—

I don't need the member for Lyons to help. You don't need to keep repeating that. I know who the member for Wills is. The member for Wills has the call.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

) ( ): Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations. On how many occasions this year has a worker contacted the Fair Work Ombudsman to report an incident of wage theft, only for the ombudsman to make no contact with their employer?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would be unusual if I had that level of detail to hand. I can certainly get that for the member. I am aware of several occasions where the ombudsman has taken complaints about underpayment that originally went to a union, without action, and then went to the ombudsman for action. I am aware that in the last budget this government provided $10. 8 million to the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate precisely the types of things that we're now talking about. I am aware that our government has a zero tolerance for this sort of behaviour, whether that is underpayment or wage theft. The difficulty is that they seem, over there, to have a very low tolerance for underpayment but they've got a monstrously high tolerance when it's workers' money being diverted from workers to unions. That's when their tolerance levels seem to get out of whack.

We have $10.8 million given by this government to the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate these matters. They are now investigated more heavily than they have ever been investigated previously. That builds on $30 million in unpaid wages, representing more than 13,000 workers, with completed audits of 4½ thousand Australian workplaces. That is more than when Labor were last in office. When Labor were last in office—and this might interest the member for Wills—notwithstanding their indignation today, they cut the funding of the Fair Work Ombudsman by 17 per cent. When they were in government, they cut the funding of the body that investigates underpayment, by 17 per cent. Do you know what they also cut, Member for Wills? The Fair Work Ombudsman's staff, who are paid money to investigate underpayment of wages, were cut by 20 per cent by members opposite. The indignation exists now, but, when the rubber was on the road and they were required to investigate these matters, they underfunded and cut the staff of the organisation that was meant to investigate these matters. We'd be very happy for another question like that, Member for Wills—another dixer.