Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased that a point has been made about the number of jobs and participation in the work force because that was something I had not recalled that I wanted to speak about, but now I will. The Howard government boasted about the number of people in employment but failed to talk about the casualisation that occurred in the work force under the Howard government and the fact that you were deemed to have a job if you only worked a few hours. So the statistics lie about the numbers of people who had jobs with which they were satisfied and in which they could earn a decent income. So you may brag all you like, those former members of the Howard government who are so proud of their role in Work Choices, but let me tell you that out there in the streets people are disgusted about the fact that they were included in the statistics as having a job when they only worked for a few hours. Let us have a look at actual participation in the work force and then you will find quite a different position than just a raw statistic on what constitutes a job.

As I was saying before, you can extrapolate the ideas that I have just talked about with respect to the workplace, where you see that you get the best productivity from the people you work with if you create an inclusive environment which is trusting, has honest communication with employees, and which offers appropriate investment in research, training and career opportunities. And if you offer appropriate flexibility in hours and parental leave you will have a work force that is satisfied, works harder and generates greater productivity. As a nation we will be able to survive the financial crisis, climate crisis and peak oil crisis much better with that work force than if we have a work force where people feel that there is a lack of trust, that they are not valued, and that they are not given equality of opportunity—where that whole inclusiveness is missing.

That is where I think we need to start using this opportunity of the financial crisis, where all the old certainties are gone, to ask: what is it in Australia that will give us what we need—a fair workplace, a just workplace, a workplace where sustainability is on the agenda, where people know that they are going to be respected, where their dignity is respected and they are encouraged to have a broader involvement in the future of the businesses in which they work and in the productivity of the nation?

There is a story that I remember, and that I often reflect on, about three people who worked in a quarry. They were all asked what they did for a job. The first one said that he just worked in a quarry cutting stones. The second one said that he prepared building materials, and the third one said, ‘I build cathedrals.’ We want workplaces in Australia where everybody in this nation feels as if they are building cathedrals—that they are contributing, no matter what they do, to the bigger picture.