Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've been listening to a number of the representations from the government on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Recovering Unpaid Superannuation) Bill 2019. There's one amazing thing—picking up on a point made by Senator Rennick, the previous speaker—and that is there are more than two million workers in trade unions. Many millions of workers work in worksites that have bargains as a result of contributions from trade unionists. There are many millions of families that contribute and receive better benefits—in actual fact, a lot of the reasons that low-income earners become middle-income earners is because they've had a chance to collectively bargain through their union. Sometimes non-union members are collectively bargaining with union members.

Part of that process has brought us to a situation where superannuation and dignity in retirement exist. But we've got a government here that wants to turn around and say that the people who steal from them should get a free holiday. They should be treated as someone who's A-OK in the eyes of this government. Well, they're certainly not A-OK in the eyes of good, hardworking Australians. They turn around and say that wage thieves should be held to account.

This bill really takes the cake. Australia is in the depths of a dual wage and superannuation crisis. On the one hand wages are not growing, and on the other hand some of those opposite want to see superannuation rolled back rather than expanded. If you listened to the previous speaker, it's confirmed: you shouldn't have superannuation. In actual fact, if you look at the most recent reports and studies from Per Capita, a well-respected think tank, they say there has not been a wage breakout as a result of the superannuation guarantee being frozen by this government. In actual fact, there's wage decline. The simplistic views and approaches by this government and by those within the government and their constant fracturing within this government in their constant fight over how they deal with wages policy—shall we take more off working people or should we just take a hell of a lot more off? That's the battle. They want to take money off people, and that's exactly what they're doing. In actual fact, they want to say to the people who are stealing money from them, 'Go right ahead, and you can have a free holiday.'

Analysis by Industry Super Australia has found that, in 2016-17, 2.85 million Australians had their superannuation stolen, to the tune of $6 billion. Where's the strategy to get that money back? That's an average of $2,070 per Australian. These are real people; these are mums and dads, granddads, people about to retire, those in their youth who hope to retire with dignity. They are people like Pamela, who, after a 20-year career as a chef, had only $3,000 in her superannuation account because her employers insisted on paying in cash, below the minimum wage, with no superannuation. Chad Parkhill, who worked at Host Dining in Brunswick, Victoria, is still trying to get 2½ thousand dollars in unpaid super back. Kerry McCulloch was employed by Blackwood Fitness in South Australia. Last May she was awarded a payout of more than $65,000 by the South Australian Employment Tribunal for non-payment of super and consistently late salary payments. Another former employee of Blackwood Fitness, Bianca, was awarded a payout of some $42,000 by the South Australian Employment Tribunal, including more than $20,000 in unpaid super. Then there was Nicholas French, who never saw a cent of the superannuation he earned from two years of working at an inner city Perth cafe. His employer turned out not to have paid any of the 15 staff members' superannuation. Most were of them part-time university students, some of them were single mums and some of them were people just trying to earn a living for their family. Nicholas only discovered he had been short-changed when he resigned and began chasing annual leave pay and superannuation, a process he described as like getting blood from a stone. After several emails and constant promises of 'next week', Nicholas had had enough and reported his employer to the Australian Taxation Office. The company had gone into liquidation and his superannuation can't be recovered. How does the government respond? It responds with a bill that gives amnesty to the very same people doing this thieving.

Let's just turn the tables for a minute. Every Australian worker goes out and steals $6 billion from their employer tomorrow—it's okay; you will get an amnesty! Those that get caught hand it back. Those that want to hand it back get an amnesty. Theft is theft is theft.

As a Labor senator's dissenting report into this legislation correctly points out, noncompliance of the superannuation guarantee is a form of wage theft. Every Australian knows it, except the government doesn't. When an employer foregoes paying superannuation to their employee, they are taking what was legally owed to that employee. Yet the government answers this rampant superannuation and wage theft with a wink and a nod and looks the other way.

This bill gives employers who have had track records of skimping on their employees' superannuation an amnesty and a tax incentive. Where is the tax break for workers with stolen superannuation? Where is the bill for the protection of employees who blow the whistle on superannuation theft in the workplace? We have a prevailing culture of wage and superannuation theft. It has become a business model for employers who think they're above the law.

Let's make this point: those many thousands of employers out there who don't see themselves above the law have been paying superannuation with dignity. In actual fact, in a number of circumstances, they have been paying extra super in negotiations with collective agreements. How does the government reward them? It rewards them by giving the same people they're competing with a competitive advantage, saying it's legal, it's justified and it's okay. Company after company are getting caught out by brave employees taking a stance supported and empowered, yes, by their unions. Bunnings owed 40,000 current and former workers some $3.8 million in unpaid superannuation; Woolworths, $300 million-plus in stolen wages and super; Heston's restaurant, $4 million in unpaid wages and superannuation; and George Calombaris, $8 million in entitlements.

In a case I know well, food delivery company Foodora, which continues to owe at least $8 million to food delivery workers, forked out just 28.9 cents in the dollar. And Deliveroo and Uber Eats are actually doing the same theft as Foodora, but where's the government? People on the other side of the chamber are espousing the virtues of working for these companies that are stealing from wages in food delivery. One senator said that this is a personal contract, like it's okay to work below conditions and rights. Now the government wants to justify it by giving amnesty to the same thieves while not pursuing them. The public is rightly outraged.

The economy is struggling. Of course, the government has never seen a problem they think a tax cut wouldn't fix: 'The economy is struggling. Give them a tax cut. Banks are committing fraud on a grand scale. Give them a tax cut. Businesses are stealing from workers. Give them a tax cut.' The only problem you haven't thrown a tax cut at is Barnaby Joyce, Angus Taylor and Bridget McKenzie! This sort of legislation is precisely the kind of law that senators opposite, who want to see an end to superannuation, would support. What would you expect; it's in their DNA. It's a government that barely tolerates—and, in some cases, hates—superannuation.

If the government is worried that the companies won't come forward, there are a dozen fairer and more efficient initiatives they could take. Firstly, they could put superannuation in the National Employment Standards, ensuring that employees have the power to pursue their unpaid superannuation, not just wait for clumsy, under-resourced responses from the Australian Taxation Office. Putting a right to superannuation in the National Employment Standards would empower working people, and their representatives, to pursue their moneys through the Fair Work Commission or the Federal Court.

Secondly, they could substantially increase the penalties for stealing wages and superannuation from employees. They could put some real teeth into the fines and penalties schemes to break the 'wage theft' business model. They could beef up the number of inspectors the Fair Work Ombudsman has. In a submission to the Attorney-General last year, Dr Clibborn, from the University of Sydney Business School, said:

There has been a large drop in funding in the Fair Work Ombudsman in real terms when calculated on a per employee basis.

As usual, the government response is to underfund the regulator. The odds remain stacked against employees. And they could go back to a scheme that was there before Prime Minister John Howard, who got rid of what was working very effectively. Prior to a lot of the wage theft that we have seen going on in this country, prior to John Howard and the notorious Peter Reith, they could re-empower unions and their officials to inspect the books of companies within their industries. Heaven forbid—working people contributing to have representatives to make sure a fair wage and a fair income are paid! Allow workers, and their representatives, to see what wages are missing. Where superannuation is missing, report it. Get those workers' entitlements back where they're deserved. And have decent wages and fair competition with people in the market who are abiding by the law. Those are companies that you don't represent, that you refuse to represent, because they're not thieving from people! They are not gig companies stealing from their workers by calling them 'contractors' when they are actually employees. We need to empower unions, not drag them down in red tape.

If the Morrison government are serious about fighting wage and super theft, they will remove the barriers that are preventing employers from being held to account. They will look at all those instances that we have seen on so many occasions where millions of dollars have been stolen in unpaid superannuation. They will look at those industries where we have so many thousands of people misclassified as contractors. They would be resourcing the Fair Work Ombudsman. They'd be resourcing and making sure that unions have the capacity to enforce integrity in the industry. They'd be listening to employers who say: 'We do the right thing. Why shouldn't the company down the road that competes with me do it as well?' They'd be coming in here with legislation to make a difference for hardworking Australians. They wouldn't have people like 48-year-old Pamela, who quit her job in disgust. She was getting paid $5 per hour below the award rate with no payslips and, of course, no superannuation.

Time and time and time again you see those on the opposite side reach out to the people who are thieving and give them a break. They don't give the people who can make a difference the resources to do it or the capacity to do it. We're in a crisis now, with incomes not increasing. There's a need to make sure we empower those that can negotiate. The Reserve Bank might be able to say it's a good idea to go out there with a cup and that the only problem we have is that people aren't asking for wage increases. That fell flat, because the last person who did that was Oliver Twist, and we know where he ended up. What you need is a collective voice to go and talk to your employer in a positive way and engage in negotiations, as has been done on so many occasions with superannuation, where it has been paid above the SG.

When this government turns around and doesn't follow through on its arrangements with regard to SG increases they also double-penalise competitive companies, because, when they reach agreements, they do so on the basis of what the future holds, of what certainty government policy brings. When those opposite talk about destroying super and holding back superannuation increases, what they're saying to all those decent companies, who say that dignity in the future, in retirement, is important to their employees and their families, is critical when they sit on industry boards and discuss how to get the best return for their employees—not some dodgy deal where the retail companies or banks turn around and give some sort of incentive on loans, which has time and again been proven to occur, regardless of its illegality. They wouldn't be up here espousing ways and means of attacking industry funds or the superannuation guarantee, or giving the shoplifter the night off and a pat on the back; they would be turning round and holding those thieves, and those people unfairly competing, and taking the side of employers, unions and workers in this country. (Time expired)