Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support Senator McKim's amendment in relation to the Fair Work Amendment (Right to Work from Home) Bill. Today, what we're seeing is Labor and the Liberals joining forces to delay action on an issue that matters to millions of Australians out there—the right to work from home. My bill would give workers the right to work from home for up to two days a week—a modest, sensible reform. It's already a reform that's been adopted and pushed by people around the country and governments. It's a sensible reform that reflects how Australians actually do want to live and work. It's in the media every day. We see Westpac trying to roll back that right and being held to account in the Fair Work Commission. We see banks put on notice that they must honour those work-from-home provisions in agreements and make sure they look after workers.

This is a very live issue right now for millions of Australians. Instead of debating its merits, both major parties have voted to defer the decision to send this important bill to inquiry. This is extraordinary. It's a longstanding Senate convention that private senators' bills, especially those from the crossbench, are sent to inquiries so they can be properly examined. Stakeholders, experts and the public get to have a say. It begs the question: why have the major parties teamed up to delay this right for workers? The coalition has a long history of eroding workers' rights and siding with the bosses—no surprise there. But Labor is supposedly the party of the workers, yet here they are, standing in the way of expanding the rights and improving the lives of workers in this country, especially women, especially parents, especially carers and many others who also want the chance to work from home and have a protected right to work from home. Yet here they are, standing in the way of expanding those rights and improving the lives of workers. So, who benefits from this delay? Who is Labor working for in delaying it?

Let's be clear. They can't claim this work-from-home policy came out of the blue, as, Minister, you have just said. We gave plenty of warning about this, and we moved this very proposal as an amendment to the government's Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill six weeks ago. There's nothing surprising here. That is not an explanation for why Labor is doing what it's doing. Workers deserve a fair go, and that includes the right to flexibility, a protected right to work from home. Deferring this bill isn't just procedural, it's a slap in the face of every worker, every woman, every carer, every person who wants to work from home and have a fair go to access that right.