Ben Small (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm here on behalf of a government that has taken proactive and decisive measures to help Australians. We're focused on helping the economy grow jobs. Having delivered 1½ million new jobs prior to the onset of the pandemic, we see that, under our responsible economic management, 93 per cent of those jobs are already back. We've sought to boost wages for Australians through tax cuts delivered to one million businesses in Australia and 11 million hardworking Australians, who are already seeing more money in their pockets as a result of the initiatives this government has led. We've sought to enhance productivity through measures like the loss carry back and the instant asset write-off. But we aren't done yet, because we've got before this chamber a suite of sensible, measured and incremental reforms that seek to provide people with certainty and enable casual workers to convert to full-time employment.

We've sought to articulate the work that the government is doing with respect to wage theft and enhancing the protections that vulnerable Australians would be protected by. Instead, rather than those reforms already putting more money into the pockets of Australians, and rather than those additional protections already being in place, we are being held back by the Labor Party, who sit opposite. Our approach to this has been informed by extensive collaboration with both industry employers and unions, but instead we've seen the Labor Party seeks to turn workplaces into political battlegrounds whilst the Leader of the Opposition is focused only on his tenuous grasp on his job rather than the jobs of those out in the community.

The government have already demonstrated that we're willing to work with this chamber and work with the crossbench, by removing the section 189 amendment. We've done this because we see five key areas of reform that will assist Australians. But, by attempting to block this, Labor is actually standing between Australians and wage growth, Australians and wage-theft protection and Australians and increased job security through a more prosperous economy. Labor's industrial policies were overwhelmingly rejected at the last election under the then leader Bill Shorten, and we're simply seeing this recycled now by the current Leader of the Opposition. Labor's proposed industry laws reveal who really calls the shots on that side of the chamber. The only job they seem focused on is that of the Leader of the Opposition.

The government have made it clear that we have zero tolerance for employees being underpaid and make no exception for any employer who seeks to exploit vulnerable Australians. The government have committed to decisive action, with $160 million to the Fair Work Ombudsman, as Senator Abetz clearly articulated, and an up to tenfold increase in the penalties for employers. The only thing stopping a tenfold increase in the penalties for employers that do the wrong thing is those opposite. Undertaking reforms to enforce our current compliance and enforcement regime with the current act is also part of this contemplated reform.

But Labor clearly doesn't believe that those workers who are underpaid need and deserve better wage protection. They've seen them as a necessary sacrifice, throwing them under the bus by blocking this bill. They made this blatantly obvious in the past as well when they advocated to scrap the Australian Building and Construction Commission. They've also carefully ignored the fact that the ABCC has already returned millions of dollars to employees since it was reintroduced by the coalition government in 2016.

The Fair Work Ombudsman continues to take decisive action on behalf of workers despite the unprecedented effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and $123 million has been redelivered into the pockets of workers—five times more money than that same agency was able to recover under the previous Labor government. The Fair Work Ombudsman has delivered 952 compliance notices, a 250 per cent increase on the number of compliance notices issued in 2018-19; filed more than double the number of court cases against employers who have done the wrong thing; secured 163 per cent more court ordered penalties; issued 603 infringement notices; and, finally, secured $56.8 billion in back payments for workers.

We are not done yet, but we are being held back by the intransigence of those opposite, who clearly, from their track record of opposing the ABCC and indeed the Registered Organisations Commission, oppose not only the rule of law but also shredding the absolute iron grip that the union movement has over labour relations from their perspective. What proposals have we heard from those opposite in this chamber tonight that would seek to improve worker entitlements and protections? We've heard nothing. In fact, all we've heard from those opposite is a proposal to take $153 a week from the pockets of casual workers across this country, a tax on businesses and nothing else.

In opposing these changes, the Labor Party have further signalled that they do not have any intention to streamline wage recovery. We've seen them with reports suggesting that underpaid employees are merely collateral damage to a broader approach that seeks to emphasise that the Leader of the Opposition holds his job. They've also stood between workers in Australia and a quicker enterprise agreement approval process, when we know that enterprise agreements in this country deliver up to 40 per cent more than award wages into the pockets of Australians. And the Labor Party still oppose that. If that's not wage growth, I don't know what is.

Let's talk a little around flexibility, which those opposite say is a terrible, terrible premise. The reforms that this government has proposed would allow 30 per cent of the part-time employees in the retail sector and 40 per cent of part-time employees in the accommodation and food services sector to work more hours but with the protections of being permanent employees and with the leave entitlements associated. But, no, the Labor Party would rather that those hours go to workers under more flexible arrangements such as casual employment. So it's the Labor Party that stands between part-time permanent employees being able to work more hours with more protection and, indeed, entrenching casual employment at the heart of the Australian economy.

As something that's very close to my heart as the Western Australian representative, we've also sought to create job opportunities with project certainty for mega projects on greenfield sites, allowing up to eight-year agreements to be struck. No; the Labor Party stand between more investment dollars generating more jobs for Western Australians and Australians more broadly, whereas this government is about getting more jobs for more Australians.

Stronger conversion rights for casuals is central to the reforms that this government has offered before this chamber, but Labor are saying that they would rather have more casuals remain, even if they would prefer permanent employment. The mechanisms that this bill articulates provide a clear and consistent pathway for any casual worker having served the requisite time period to convert that employment to permanent employment. It is a right that this bill confers. So what holds that back? Opposition from the Labor Party. So, it seems to me that the only side that is proposing to cut wages, to cut job security and to cost jobs in the Australian economy is in fact the Labor Party.

In true Labor fashion, their solution to all problems is simply to raise taxes, and we saw this going into the last election, with $387 billion worth of new taxes proposed. We've seen it recently, with this $20 billion hit to business, or a pay cut for casual workers of $153 a week. So, if we're serious in this place about putting more money into the pockets of Australian workers, if we're serious about affording Australians the improved job security that comes with a healthy economy, if we're serious about tackling wage theft and getting wage underpayments into the pockets of Australians in a more efficient and streamlined process, then honourable senators in this place will get behind these important reforms and get the job done. That's what the people of Australia sent us here to do.