Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to finally have the opportunity to speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017. The Labor Party have been calling for years for this type of legislation to protect vulnerable workers, with no joy at all. Finally we have some action on protecting vulnerable workers, but it certainly does not go far enough. Having said that, it is, I guess, better than nothing, and this bill does go some way towards dealing with the exploitation that occurs across our economy in Australia. We support its passage through the Senate because, as I said, we are better off having something than nothing at all, which is what we have had for a number of years. The government has had to be dragged kicking and screaming to act to protect vulnerable workers.

At the last election Labor had policies to combat sham contracting; to shut down the practices of companies, phoenixing to avoid wage liabilities; to reform the Fair Work Act to protect vulnerable workers; to criminalise employer conduct that involves the use of coercion or threats during the commission of serious contraventions of the Fair Work Act, particularly in relation to temporary overseas workers; and to make it easier for workers to recover unpaid wages from employers and directors of responsible companies. This bill, however, does nothing to address these issues, and that is why I emphasise that this bill does not go far enough to protect vulnerable workers. It also does not protect workers from cuts to penalty rates made by this government. Up to 700,000 Australians will lose up to $77 per week—people who will have to work longer for less, women who will be disproportionately affected by those penalty rate cuts, and regional communities who will have less money spent in their economies. So there is a real need for this bill.

The issues that I've just raised are of major concern to the opposition—to the Labor Party and to me personally. For some time now senators in this place would have been aware that I've been on an inquiry looking at the introduction of a modern slavery act in Australia. A lot of the evidence that has been brought to our attention during the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade's inquiry into modern slavery in Australia has included examples of some of the issues that were covered by Labor's policies at the last election. These included issues to do with coercion and threats by employers, particularly for temporary overseas workers, and issues to do with workers being unable to recover unpaid wages from their employers.

I would like to refer to the submission to the inquiry into establishing a modern slavery act by The Freedom Partnership: End Modern Slavery—that is, the Salvation Army, as well as the Uniting Church of Australia, FECCA and ACRATH. In their very, very detailed submission, they give examples of workers who have not been protected. Indeed, I would like to share with the Senate one example of what modern slavery looks like in Australian supply chains across a range of industries. In fact, this example is about a man called Samuel Kautai. Samuel Kautai was a young man from the Cook Islands, who along with four other men, all around the ages of 17- and 18-years-old—just starting out in their working life—were recruited by an employer's brother in the construction industry and were promised that while they would not get any wages for the first three weeks, after that they would get paid the full amount, and be able to send money back home to their families in the Cook Islands. However, he was never paid more than $50 a month. This is here, in Australia. He was never paid any more than $50 a month. And worse than that, Samuel and some of his co-workers, were physically abused, underfed and endured long working hours without decent breaks. This case was pursued by the CFMEU under industrial mechanisms and by the NSW Police Force under state criminal law. The case was decided both times in favour of the applicant, which, of course, resulted in the employer having to pay back to Samuel Kautai and the other employees what they were duly and rightly owed.

When we talk about protecting vulnerable workers, we are talking about workers across a range of industries from construction to carpentry to welding to the meat industry as well as domestic workers, market garden workers, horticultural—I have so many examples in this submission to our modern slavery inquiry of workers who have simply been ripped off and who have been treated appallingly, all because of their employers obviously doing wrong by them, but also because we don't have legislation that provides those protections that Labor has been asking and urging this government to deliver.

These examples of exploitation make it clear that action is needed. For example, subcontractors' exploitation—who were engaged by Myer employing cleaners on sham contracts under which workers were paid below award wages, denied penalty rates and superannuation, and worked without occupational health and safety protections—needs to end. Of course, we are all very familiar with what occurred with the 7-Eleven stores. They were operating a business model based on methodical, systematic exploitation of vulnerable foreign workers that included the gross underpayment of wages and doctoring of pay records designed to conceal unlawful conduct, and workers subjected to threats of deportation and physical intimidation. This has no place in a civilised society like ours. It has no place in Australia.

Protecting vulnerable workers is laudable, but, unfortunately, this government cannot be trusted when it comes to protecting vulnerable workers. We have concern that this bill gives coercive powers to the Fair Work Ombudsman without external scrutiny and oversight, and that it could be abused to investigate unions and industrial action rather than actually protecting the vulnerable workers that it needs to protect. We believe that this legislation needs to be amended to ensure that these powers can only be used in investigations into the underpayment of wages.

Labor will continue to lead the way in protecting vulnerable workers, be it through legislation or amendments to this bill in this place or be it through our work in support of the introduction of a modern slavery act similar to that in place in the UK, France and the Netherlands. And, of course, Labor will also ask for the Fair Work Ombudsman to have all the powers necessary to pursue employers who exploit workers. The Fair Work Ombudsman must have powers to be able to pursue those employers, whatever the case may be. But the powers, of course, must have proper oversight. That is what we are asking for in relation to this Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill.

As I outlined, this bill does fall significantly short of the suite of policy and legislative reforms that Labor first announced more than 12 months ago, before this Turnbull government even turned its mind to the notion of protecting vulnerable workers, because it's so caught up in its ideological obsession with unions and its lobbying against workers rather than actually standing up for their protection. I'm pleased to have had the chance to speak on this bill. We've been calling for action to protect these workers for a very long time without any joy. But something is better than nothing, and it's pleasing to see what we have before the Senate today. Let's strengthen this bill so that it can really do what it should do: protect vulnerable workers in Australia.