House debates Questions without Notice
Workplace Relations
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
2:55 pm
My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. These two payslips are from two train drivers at Pacific National's coalmine in the Bowen Basin who do the same job. One is employed by Pacific National and one by a labour hire firm. The train driver employed by the labour hire firm is a casual but still earns around $300 less than his colleague every week. What action will the government take to stop this, which is hurting workers in regional Australia and is one of the measures leading to the reduction in real wages across the economy?
Barnaby Joyce New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals
2:56 pm
I thank the honourable member for his question. Yet again, it's very sneaky. He should really address the question to the appropriate minister with carriage of this. I invite Minister Fletcher to—
Andrew Wallace Fisher, Liberal Party
The Deputy Prime Minister will resume his seat.
Opposition members interjecting—
The member for Sydney! Members on my left! The minister representing the minister for industry has the call.
Paul Fletcher Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts
I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for referring this question to me as the Minister representing the Minister for Industrial Relations in the House. We are asked: what are we going to do about employment in regional Australia? We are going to boost economic growth and make it easier for people to be employed. That's what we are going to do.
Andrew Wallace Fisher, Liberal Party
The minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order?
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
This was a specific question with a real-world example about a labour hire worker doing the same job as someone else at Pacific National being paid $300 less—
Andrew Wallace Fisher, Liberal Party
The Leader of the Opposition will state the point of order.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
My point of order is that the minister doesn't get to ask himself a question and then answer it. That's what he did.
Government members int erjecting—
Andrew Wallace Fisher, Liberal Party
Just a moment, Leader of the Opposition. It's not helpful for those on my right to be yelling in my ear. The minister will resume his seat for a moment. As the Leader of the Opposition knows, if he wants to take a point of order he needs to state the point of order.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
My point of order is: is it in order for the minister, when he came to the dispatch box—
Well, when I do—sit down! It's a point of order. Sit down!
Andrew Wallace Fisher, Liberal Party
The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The Leader of the House is raising a point of order.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
I had the call!
Andrew Wallace Fisher, Liberal Party
The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The Leader of the House.
Peter Dutton Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence
It's clear that the Leader of the Opposition is making a point of order on relevance, even though he doesn't want to say that.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
No!
Peter Dutton Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence
Well, he refuses to state, in that case, what standing order he is referring to, in which case he is out of order. He should be ruled out of order because the minister has made a statement which is completely in order.
Andrew Wallace Fisher, Liberal Party
The Leader of the Opposition, it would assist the chair, when you want to raise a point of order, if you state the point of order.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
The point of order goes to standing order provisions for questions without notice, standing order 99. In which case, I asked the question and what occurred was the minister stood up and then asked himself a question and then proceeded to answer the question that he'd asked himself. That is not in order.
Andrew Wallace Fisher, Liberal Party
The minister is in order. The minister has the call.
Paul Fletcher Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts
I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for referring this question to me, because it goes to a very important issue about the completely fallacious presentation we are hearing from the other side of the House about this so-called 'same job, same pay' issue, which is essentially a made-up issue. There is no barrier under Labor's own Fair Work Act to an enterprise agreement. The requirement under Labor's own Fair Work Act is that you can be employed under an enterprise agreement as long as you are better off than under an award. If that was good enough for Labor under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, we need to understand what has changed.
The fact is that the percentage of people employed on a labour hire basis is less than two per cent, but the people who are really unhappy about it are the union bosses. Only 14 per cent of Australians are now union members, down from 40 per cent. What we on this side of the House care about—
Andrew Wallace Fisher, Liberal Party
The minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order? No, the minister has completed his answer.