Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

If ever there was a clear difference between this rabble of a government, this government that their own Prime Minister called the muppets, this government that their former Prime Minister calls mad, then it's the position Labor is taking on standing up for workers and their families. What we have said clearly is that we will restore the penalty rates of 700,000 workers across this country. These are some of the poorest and most disadvantaged workers in the country. What we have seen has been a process of pressurising the Fair Work Commission. There was minister after minister of this coalition government who stood up and said we needed more flexibility on penalty rates. We had member after member of the coalition government talking about the need to get into a modern economy and get rid of penalty rates. The pressure was put on publicly by this government and by business. Unfortunately, the Fair Work Commission made an amazing blunder by taking penalty rates away from some of the poorest workers in this country. Labor will restore those penalty rates because we understand how important penalty rates are to working families across this country.

When I first came to Australia in 1973, as a maintenance fitter, without my penalty rates I would not have been able to put food on the table, pay the rent and look after my family. It was my penalty rates that actually put me in a position to be able to pay the rent in Kingsford in Sydney, which was pretty high by any standard, and then put food on the table and actually do a little bit for my family to get ahead. It was penalty rates that did it. Without penalty rates, I would have been in all sorts of trouble. My basic wage in those days was $87 a week and I was paying $50 a week in rent. It was my penalty rates that allowed me to actually live a basic life, a decent life, when I first came to Australia.

This is a problem for 700,000 workers across this country. I can't believe that the National Party would have been party to this push against penalty rates, because in many regional economies—and I was in Albury-Wodonga recently and down in Bega the week before last—working people were saying they're doing it tough and small businesses were saying they're doing it tough. When the money from the penalty rates comes out of our local economies, businesses do it tough. We are saying we will restore penalty rates. There are good economic reasons to do it, there are good social reasons to do it and there are reasons of fairness in this country. So we will restore penalty rates. This is Labor standing up for workers.

We will also provide a tax break to workers at the lower end of earnings in this country. We'll provide a tax break of up to $1,063 per annum. That's in sharp contrast to the coalition, who wanted to hand $80 billion to the big end of town in tax cuts and wanted to hand $12 billion in tax cuts to the banks. How crazy can you get? How ideologically driven can you get that when workers are doing it tough, when workers are having their penalty rates cut, you want to hand billions of dollars over to the banks and the big end of town?

We've said that we'll crack down on dodgy labour hire companies. Labour hire companies are still out there forcing workers onto individual contracts. They are forcing workers who are not self-employed into self-employed positions. That is unacceptable. The labour hire companies that are out there behaving badly need to be brought under some control and under some regulation. We need workers to get a fair go if they're working for a labour hire company. Labour hire companies should be registered so that we know only legitimate labour hire companies are going to operate.

We want to ensure that Australian workers get access to jobs and are not replaced by overseas workers on 457 visas unnecessarily. Labor has always taken the view that there is a need for overseas labour. I am a product of Labor's previous policies of bringing workers in from overseas, but I came into this country as a permanent migrant and I think I brought some skills, through my trade, to this country, and that is a legitimate position. But now we've seen 457 visas being used unnecessarily. Under the mining boom, sure, there was a massive increase in the number of 457 visas. That's because the country needed those skills. Now that we don't need those skills as much as we did, there should not be the use of 457 visas unnecessarily.

Workers are not getting their fair share in this country. We've had decades of economic growth in this country. But what is it for workers? Stagnating wages. You hear all these arguments about jobs being created. It's not the coalition that's created the jobs; it's business that has created these jobs. Business has created these jobs, but the workers are not getting a pay rise. The workers are not getting a cent more. Workers' wages are stagnating, and that is a massive problem for the living standards of working families. Their standards of living are declining. They're battling to pay their mortgage; they're battling to pay their rent. Many, many workers can't afford to go on a modest holiday in this country. They're cutting back on small luxuries. Battling workers can't take their kids to the movies. They can't send their kids on school excursions. Once in a blue moon, they might be able to get a takeaway—that's a luxury for many working people in this country.

It's so far from the reality of the coalition members, who are living a life that many workers do not understand and could never contemplate. Yet these people on a $200,000-a-year basic wage are saying to workers: 'You must get rid of your penalty rates. Your wages should stagnate. Just believe in us and somehow you'll get a pay increase.' It's absolute ideological nonsense from this government. Workers are battling to pay their electricity bills. After five years of this coalition, there is no certainty for investment in the power industry. That's because you've got the extremists on the other side who don't believe in climate change, who are simply trying to push an extreme ideological agenda on this country that has left investment in renewables stagnating. Investment in renewables should be massively growing, as every modern economy is looking to do. This is a position of: we need a consistent policy. The coalition are incapable of providing a consistent policy on power and on climate change, and that means that workers are paying the price. It's because of the incompetence and lack of policy from the coalition government.

Private health care is beyond the reach of the majority of low-paid workers. They can't afford private health care. These prices are going up more and more. This is just another example of the problems for working people. The Centre for Future Work have done an analysis. They've looked at it, and they've come up with a view that workers are getting about $16,800 less pay a year due to the labour share of the gross domestic product declining. More money is going to the big end of town, more money is going to employers and less money is coming to workers. That has resulted in a $16,800-a-year less share of the economy for every worker. The OECD has seen the highest incidence of temporary work. CEO remuneration as a multiple of medium wages in Australia was 15 to one. It is now 180 to one over a 40-year period. The big end of town is doing okay; executives are doing okay. Workers' wages are stagnating. The government have got no answers; the government are on their last legs. No wonder that their own people describe them as 'muppets' and as 'mad', because they are the 'M and Ms'. (Time expired)