Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I have said before, prior to entering this place I was a retail worker. Retail and hospitality workers know all too well the stress that has come with the pandemic—their hours can be changed at the last minute, everyone keeps getting sick, and they are working harder than ever before, all while seeing their wages stagnate and even going backwards when the previous government abolished Sunday penalty rates. These workers are tired, overworked and all too often overlooked.

On 18 October the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union coordinated the first national retail strike in Australian history. I was proud to stand in solidarity with my former colleagues as they walked off the job at the Brisbane Apple store. These workers are asking the company—worth trillions of dollars—for the most basic workplace rights: fair pay, a better work-life balance that allows them just one weekend off every now and then, and to be treated like the part-time and full-time workers they are employed as, with minimum hours and set rosters, instead of the casualised workforce they are treated as, all without receiving any casual loading. Change comes from the ground up. It was amazing to be part of this historical moment, and it was so inspiring seeing the workers in the Brisbane electorate come together and fight for and with one another.