Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Right now we're facing a global pandemic that not only is impacting our health but also has caused Australia's first recession in almost 30 years. So many people are doing it tough right now. Too many people have lost their jobs and their livelihoods. But this crisis has shone a light on another crisis that Australia was already facing—the crisis of low-paid, insecure work. Overwhelmingly, those industries that have been hardest hit by job losses are those with highly casualised and insecure workforces. It is also workers in casual and insecure work who have often faced the terrible choice during this pandemic of whether to isolate at home when sick or risk going to work to pay the bills and keep their jobs.

In Victoria and around the country, far too many people are in low-paid and insecure work. In the long term, we need a plan that will create good secure jobs in Australia, but right now we need a solution to support these workers through this pandemic. We need a solution that means workers don't face the awful choice I just mentioned and that helps us stop the spread of this virus, because COVID-19 is spreading through our workplaces. To stop it spreading in workplaces, people need to be able to stay home when they're sick, but 40 per cent of Australian workers have no entitlement to any form of paid leave today. In Victoria, the pandemic has been spreading along the fault lines of the existing epidemic of insecure work in our society. Too many people don't have sick leave. They can't afford to miss a shift and they can't afford to lose their job. Casual workers and gig workers know all too well that, in so many cases, the only way to hold onto their job is to just keep turning up.

These workers in Victoria have faced a dilemma that no-one should have to face: should I go to work sick in the middle of a pandemic or should I stay home with no income and no ability to support myself and my family? Should I go to work and put my workmates and my community at risk or should I stay home and risk my job? This dilemma is at the heart of the spread of COVID-19 in Victoria. The virus has been spreading through workplaces with high levels of insecure work, such as laundries, meatworks and aged care. It's been spreading in industries where people work one, two or even three jobs to make ends meet. It's been spreading in industries where people are in direct contact with each other and with the community and where working from home is just not an option. It's been spreading in parts of the city—in the north and the west—that have high levels of disadvantage and high levels of insecure jobs.

People in casual jobs, contract jobs, gig jobs and labour hire jobs want to do the right thing as much as anyone else does. But we have to make it straightforward for them to do what is necessary, and we have to make it clear to employers that we expect them to support their workers to stay home when they need to. Last month Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told us that about 80 per cent of the state's new infections since mid-May had been driven by transmission in workplaces. He's told us that this COVID crisis is a crisis of insecure work. An estimated 3.7 million Australians don't have any access to paid sick leave or the other protections of permanent employment, including casuals, contractors, freelancers, sole traders and gig-economy workers. Research by the ACTU shows that too many people say they would still attend work even if they had COVID-like symptoms. They would go to work sick, and the reason is that they are afraid of losing their jobs if they didn't. They are afraid of having their shifts or their hours reduced, and in some cases they just can't afford to have unpaid time off work.

So, it's well past time to address this problem and for the government to deliver a national paid pandemic leave scheme, something that Labor and the union movement have been calling for since March. A national paid pandemic leave scheme is just as much about the government telling employers that they expect people to be able to stay home—no threats, no risks, no loss of pay. It's just as much about that as it is about making it straightforward for workers to stay home. And to be clear, this is not just a Victorian problem; it's a national problem. We're being told over and over again that we need to learn to live with this virus, that there'll be flare-ups and outbreaks, and paid pandemic leave is one of the vital tools in stopping those outbreaks from turning into second and third waves of the virus.

The idea that those opposite—those in government—who keep calling for the borders to be opened would make those calls without putting in place all the tools we need in order to stop outbreaks and stop new waves of the virus is nothing short of extraordinary. If government funded paid pandemic leave ends up not being needed, it won't cost a cent. If it is needed, it will save lives and livelihoods across the country. This fact has been obvious for months. It was obvious back in March when Minister Porter told casual workers they didn't need paid pandemic leave, because they should have just saved up their casual loading. These comments have not aged well.

It's not enough for the Prime Minister to step in and fund pandemic crisis pay that the Victorian government had already put in place two months ago when cases spiked again. Two months ago the Victorian government put a $1,500 worker support payment in place for people with COVID-19 who needed to isolate, and the Prime Minister has re-badged that payment as a pandemic leave disaster payment for Victoria and taken over the funding. That is welcome; it really is. But right now, today, it is just not enough. The scheme has to be national and it has to be a clear employment right, and it should be provided through employers, who can then be reimbursed, and the federal government has to contribute. We need a national paid pandemic leave scheme. Until and unless the Prime Minister announces a national paid pandemic leave scheme, his decision to fund Victoria's existing payments will seem like just another photo opp without follow-through of what is really needed: a clear, consistent national paid pandemic leave plan that workers know is there for them and one that tells employers that they must allow their workers to stay at home and that they will be funded to do so.

Just as important as a paid pandemic leave scheme—to help to support workers now, to help to stop the spread of COVID-19 now—is the future. We need to address the problem of insecure work for good. We should be using this opportunity to rebuild the economy to work for everyone, to rebuild an economy where no-one is left behind—an economy that has as its foundation good, secure jobs that bring respect and that people can count on and plan a future on. Australia can afford to do better and, as we recover from the COVID-19 crisis, let's focus on delivering the respect, the security and the opportunity that all Australians deserve. So I call on the government to deliver paid pandemic leave now, before it's too late. It will help stop new outbreaks. It will help prevent further lockdowns. It will help save jobs and lives. I also call on them to deliver Australians a recovery plan for good, secure jobs—deliver Australians a recovery and a future that they can count on.