Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm not sure what to say about that.

Honourable Senator:

An honourable senator interjecting—

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There should be more of it. It probably wouldn't do the Labor Party in Queensland any harm if you repeated it. I was struck today by seeing—of all places, on Sky News—the ACTU's new advertisement that they've launched in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It sets out very clearly who it is that Australian unions represent. As the ad beautifully puts it, they represent ordinary mums and dads, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles. The ad quite appropriately puts the focus on many of those people who have worked through the pandemic—worked through the period when most Australians were required to be at home—and, indeed, as is sadly still the case in Victoria, are still working through the pandemic as essential workers today. They are working through the pandemic as essential workers this evening. When we all go to bed, many of those people will still be working to deliver safety and security and health services to many, many millions of Australians.

Those people should have a new place in our hearts: the nurses, the aged-care workers, the teachers and the supermarket workers. There are the people who work in the supply chains, in the factories that are still operating, the mines that are still operating, the power stations that are providing us power, and the childcare centres that are looking after our children. There are the doctors, the GPs, the surgeons, the hospital workers and the hospital orderlies. There are the transport workers, the truck drivers and the taxi drivers. There should be a solemn contract between the people in this place and those people: 'You've looked after us during the pandemic; we will look after you.'

There should be an end to the quaint obsessions about industrial relations of those opposite. These are the people who recently—in the last few weeks, remarkably—were still idolising poor old Margaret Thatcher. The Treasurer of the country, in the middle of a pandemic where government action couldn't be more important, was idolising the woman who said that there is no such thing as society, the woman who sucked up to some of the worst characters across the globe, the woman who brought gifts to General Pinochet after his conviction and supported that murderous regime, the woman who supported ruthless paramilitary death squads in Northern Ireland, and the woman who, more than any other leader in modern history, weakened Britain and trashed its institutions. That's not the pathway forward for us.

You looked after us; we will look after you. In this place, we should listen to those workers, give them a real voice through their unions and value them with decent wages and good jobs. I was horrified—everybody here should be horrified—to hear about casual workers in the aged-care sector who, in order to make ends meet, are working in two or three or four centres. That is unacceptable, and it has caused more human misery than any other thing. Your failure—

Senator Colbeck interjecting—

I'd stay quiet, if I were you. You've had a pretty quiet day. You've had a pretty ordinary day, and your going to have a pretty ordinary fortnight. Damage through hypercasualisation in that sector, and in many other sectors in the Australian economy, has driven the pandemic more than any other factor in the labour market. I want to draw this place's attention to the circumstances of some of these groups of workers. A company called Ovato, the largest print and packaging company in the country, is a merger of Hannan printers and PMP. They've worked closely with their union over many decades, with 850 workers covering every state of the country except Tasmania.

Like many businesses, it has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. In March the union agreed to discuss cost-saving measures with the company. A long course of very cooperative industrial relations has characterised the last 30 years. On the day before their collective agreement expired the company applied to have the agreement terminated. We know what that means for that group of people. Some of them have worked there for 10, 20 or 30 years. The purpose of the company terminating their collective agreement was in order to avoid their redundancy obligations to those workers.

When I went out to the factory the other day I met some of the workers. Some of them are owed 50 weeks, some 100 weeks, some 150 weeks and some more. Mr Gripp, who works in Melbourne, said: 'I've been at the Clayton site for the past 23 years and have seen the highs and lows of the print industry. I'm the third generation of my family to be employed at the Clayton site.' His grandmother Joyce Gripp worked there for 31 years; his dad, Kevin Gripp, worked there for 28 years; his mum, Lynn Gripp, worked there for many years; and he has worked there for 23 years. There is all of that service to that company. There is a long tradition of service to that company by Australian workers in the western suburbs of Melbourne in particular and in Sydney. They built the company and collaborated with the company. They are now going to be left destitute because of a dishonest strategy from Ovato. In the middle of a pandemic we're supposed to be looking after these people, and what have we got? A dishonest strategy to effectively defraud them of their redundancy entitlements.

In my industrial work over many years I met the family that's a very large shareholder in that business. Traditionally their word was their bond. They operated in a straightforward way. I don't understand why the Hannan family is allowing this operation to pursue the course of action that it has. Their word should be their bond. The collective agreement should be honoured and not avoided. If the company can't find its way to do the right thing then the Minister for Industrial Relations and the Commonwealth should intervene to make sure that these people get every cent that is owed to them.

There has been plenty more going on in workplaces across the country. Just today 275 distribution workers at Officeworks went on strike. Officeworks has been a beneficiary of the pandemic as many Australians have set up home offices. Sales at Officeworks have gone up by 27 per cent and profits have increased by 41 per cent. Workers have worked through that whole period delivering goods to Officeworks stores. They've worked through three positive coronavirus cases and continue to work safely. Instead of offering a fair deal to this group, they offered a wage increase below inflation and cuts to overtime penalties.

I'm pretty convinced that their union, the new United Workers Union, will see them through that process, but there are lots of employers out there who are not doing the right thing in Australian workplaces. Woolworths on the Central Coast of New South Wales had a lockout for many days. Their union stood by them. They have recorded a very good outcome in their collective bargaining negotiations. It's a credit to them and their union, the United Workers Union, that they and the union did something about being locked out.

When Australian workers and their union stick together, there's nothing that they can't achieve. There are great signs for the United Workers Union with their progress over the last few months with their merger. My old union, the AWU, is going from strength to strength. We should have a commitment in this place to look at the faces of those workers in the ACTU ad. We should thank the workers in our aged-care centres, hospitals and supermarkets for their work, but we should not forget their work. We should deliver for them fair incomes and decent jobs into the future. (Time expired)

Senate adjourned at 22:05