Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take the opportunity to touch on a few subjects in this statement that are of great concern in my home state of Queensland. We've seen yet another week in parliament that was hijacked by the National Party's internal political games. We've seen yet another week in Canberra where the Nationals have spent the entire week focusing on their own jobs, not on the jobs of people in regional Queensland.

At the same time that the National Party engaged in yet another game of musical chairs about their leadership, fighting each other in yet another petty schoolyard squabble about who gets the top job, coalminers across Queensland and New South Wales have been fighting just to get a decent day's wage and decent conditions in their jobs. At the same time as the Nationals have been fighting about who gets the big job, the big car and the big office, we've seen coalminers across Queensland and New South Wales fighting simply to hang on to their jobs and get a degree of job security. Why is that? The reason is that, over the eight long years of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government supported by a parade of National Party leaders that seem to change every day of the week, coalminers across Queensland and New South Wales have suffered from a total explosion of casualisation and labour hire, which this government has done nothing about and, in fact, has actively supported.

Every National Party member and every LNP member in this chamber knows that under their government's watch, casualisation and labour hire have exploded across Queensland and New South Wales coalfields. What that means is that miners don't have job security. They never know whether they will be kept on from one day or one week to the next. In many cases, they actually end up getting paid less than the permanent workers who they work right alongside, even after they get a casual loading.

The argument you always hear from the other side is that it's okay to be casual because you get paid a casual loading and that makes up for the loss of conditions. Well, I can tell you, anyone who thinks that hasn't spent any time in any coalfields across Queensland or New South Wales. Because if you did spend that time, you would know that people are actually getting paid less as well as not having permanent work, as well as not getting sick leave, not getting annual leave and not getting a whole range of other benefits that come with permanent work. So at the same time as we see the National Party caring only about their own jobs, we see coalminers across Queensland and New South Wales worrying about whether they will actually keep their job from one week to the next.

Fortunately, not everyone in Canberra is focused on their own jobs. Some of us are actually focused on the jobs of the people we represent. Last night, I had the great pleasure of joining our leader, Anthony Albanese, in a virtual town hall with coalminers from around the country—from around Queensland, New South Wales and even some from WA. We took the opportunity to listen to them, unlike the government, who just roll into town dressed up like miners, who go and see the boss but who never talk to the workers to find out what they are going through. We took the opportunity to listen to what coalminers have to say and we learnt even more about the situation that they are experiencing—not having permanent work, not knowing from one day or one week to the next whether they are going to keep their job, about being too concerned about losing their job to not speak up about safety issues on site. We saw what happened there at the Grosvenor mine recently and the inquiry into the explosion which nearly cost five workers their lives.

As well as listening to those workers, it was a great pleasure to actually have some solutions to put forward in the form of Labor's same job, same pay policy. For Labor, there is a very simple principle at stake, whether we are talking about the mining industry or any other industry right around this country. If you do the same job as someone who you are working alongside, you should get at least the same pay, none of this business of being engaged as a casual or through some shonky labour hire outfit, where you get paid less, where you get fewer benefits, where you get less job security, less sick leave, less annual leave. That has to stop and it should have stopped a long time ago because this government have known that this has been a problem for years. They don't know that because they don't take the trouble to actually go to the coalfields and meet with miners and meet with mining communities, who will raise this as the very first issue when you are in conversation with them. They certainly know, because we have been raising it in this chamber year after year after year and still we see no action from this government and we still see no action from their friends in One Nation, who also claim to represent coalminers.

In fact, we saw the disgraceful situation, recently, where One Nation and the LNP ganged up to vote for legislation which was actually going to only entrench casualisation in the mining industry despite all their claims to be fixing it. So the regime we now have in place from this government, backed in by One Nation, basically leaves it up to the boss to decide whether or not you are a casual. It doesn't matter if you have long rosters or, week to week, the same rosters for years to come; if the boss says you are a casual, you will get paid as a casual and you will not get permanent employment. That's what the LNP and One Nation think of coalminers despite all their claims and all their grandstanding to the contrary.

It's Labor who actually care about the rights of mining workers. It is Labor who actually have the policies to do something about this, especially our same job, same pay policy. And it's Labor, who, after the next election, will have the opportunity to implement those policies and actually show who really cares about mining jobs. People in mining communities have had an absolute gutful of the National Party in particular, but the Liberals and One Nation as well, arguing more about their own jobs rather than actually doing something about the jobs in mining communities. Labor's not like that. We are actually going to stand up for those communities, we are going to stand up for those workers, we will change the law and we will make sure that they get decent conditions at work and they get the job security that this government and One Nation have denied them.

The other issue I want to touch on is the very drastic changes that are coming to Medicare on 1 July. We know very well that the Liberal and National parties don't believe in Medicare; they never have. When the Hawke government introduced Medicare in 1983, the Liberals and Nationals opposed it. Ever since, they have taken steps to try to cut Medicare, to undermine it, and eventually to abolish it. Let's look at what they tried to do immediately after being elected in 2013. I know Senator Stoker is sensitive about this. If I had spent my entire political career trying to kill Medicare, I would be pretty sensitive, as well. Let's look what they did straight after they were elected in 2013. They tried to introduce a co-payment to undermine the ability for any Australian who is sick to go into a doctor and get the best medical care in the world without having to pay for it. That is how Australia should be. That is what Australians love about Australia. Unlike the United States, which Senator Stoker and many of her colleagues want to model our health system on, you can get free medical care—the very best medical care—whether you are rich or poor, whether you live in the city or the country. Unfortunately, that is becoming harder for so many Australians, particularly in rural and regional Australia, because of the cuts this government has made to Medicare. Again, if you spend any time out in regional Queensland, as I do, you will know that the waiting lists to get in to see GPs are getting longer and longer, because of the policies and decisions of this government, and that people are paying more and more to go and see a doctor, because this government doesn't support having a free, universal health system called Medicare.

Senator Stoker interjecting—

I'll take the interjection from Senator Stoker, who wants to talk about bulk-billing rates. Day after day, Senator Stoker demonstrates how grossly out of touch she is with the Australian public. It might have done her own job a little bit of good to spend a bit more time outside inner-city Brisbane and travel around regional Queensland, which at least Senator McGrath has the decency to do. If Senator Stoker had done that, not only might she have won her preselection but she might also have realised that many Queenslanders don't have the benefit of bulk-billing, especially people in rural and regional Queensland, and that is because of the changes that this government has made.

The problem is that the system is going to be become worse. On 1 July this government is sneaking in nearly 1,000 changes to Medicare in its latest attempt to it abolish Medicare—to undercut it and undermine it—and to make Australians pay more for their health care than ever before. They're particularly coming after surgeries. In the time I have left, I'll just mention one case. Two weeks ago, on the Gold Coast, I met with the Van Dam family—Richard, his son Damian and his daughter Jesse-Rose. These kids have a rare medical condition which means they have to have surgery on a regular basis. Because of these changes to Medicare on 1 July, they and many other Queenslanders are going to pay more. The Liberals will always try to undermine Medicare. Labor will always stand up for it. We will fight these changes.