Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It saddens me, as someone who worked in the transport and exporting industries before coming to this place, that we see fuelled by the gig economy a race to the bottom and a deplorable lack of reasonable safeguards. Workers in the transport industry have fallen victim to an increasingly dangerous working environment, unfair labour conditions and plummeting pay rates. In this growing and nearly entirely unregulated space, gig drivers are forming a shadow workforce that undercuts parallel drivers who have won hard-earned rights and job protections through strong bargaining processes.

Under the pretence of flexibility and what is now labelled as the 'Amazon effect' by the Transport Workers' Union, gig companies like Amazon are propelling unrealistic demands from wealthy clients. These companies, through schemes such as Amazon Flex are extracting copious levels of work from drivers with the lowest possible rate of remuneration and a complete lack of labour protections. These arrangements regularly see gig drivers being forced to put themselves in unsafe situations to meet nonsensical targets just to barely make ends meet, with crippling hours and working conditions.

To demonstrate just how unrealistic these targets are across the gig economy, the average number of parcels delivered in a ten-hour delivery shift have skyrocketed to 93. That's one delivery for every six minutes, a standard that drivers often must meet to merely keep their jobs. What this means in the gig industry is that drivers are left with no other choice than to cut vital corners and threaten the basic safety of themselves and others. These behaviours are often directly encouraged by the gig employers themselves, with one-quarter of drivers feeling pressured to pass legal hours and to skip rest breaks and one-fifth of them being made to exceed speed limits to meet deadlines.

This disgraceful disregard for safety in the gig driving industry have resulted in tragic, real-world implications on roads across our communities, An appalling 1,000-plus deaths from truck incidents have been reported since 2016, stemming from one-quarter of truck drivers having been involved in crashes while working. Somehow even more shocking is that 41 per cent of truckies have known a co-worker who has been killed on the job. This extraordinary risk to drivers comes with very little in the way of basic fair wages for them putting their lives on the line. While 81 per cent of gig economy drivers depend on their meagre earnings to afford everyday necessities, their pitiful remuneration has forced 41 per cent of them to work over 40 hours a week. This is all while 66 per cent of them earn less than the minimum wage on a full-time basis, directly contributing to 45 per cent of gig drivers struggling to afford groceries and household bills.

Soon this race to the bottom by companies willing to out-compete each other, via slashing workplace conditions and basic safety standards for employees, threatens to spread across the entire Australian transport industry. FedEx has recently proposed an Amazon Flex style model of employment that would expand an underclass of gig workers' arrangements across a quarter to half of their entire workforce.

These troubling developments are precisely why the Albanese Labor government recognises the need for urgent reform in this field to save good-paying jobs with hard-won working conditions across Australia and particularly in my home state of Tasmania. This is why workplace relations minister, the Hon. Tony Burke, along with the Transport Workers Union, joined a comprehensive roundtable with several gig companies and supply-chain clients to agree on creating enforceable and fair conditions for gig workers, alongside a powerful standard-setting body that will ensure a level playing field for all stakeholders. No more can hardworking Australians be vulnerable to appalling exploitation practices when we finally guarantee workplace rights for all working employees in Australia in this critical sector, the transport sector.

I now want to turn to mark World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. We know that elder abuse is a scourge in our society. So, in marking and respecting the significance of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, we must recognise that the stain of elder abuse in our community is all too prevalent and needs to be stamped out in its entirety. As family members, carers, friends and loved ones of older Australians, we must all hold a shared responsibility in protecting some of the most vulnerable in our society from the blight of abuse. We know that elder abuse comes in many forms. But we also need to understand that observing that abuse without reporting it means that older Australians are not going to be able to enjoy their lives. We know that at least 10 per cent of elderly Australians have been victims of elder abuse. We know this can come in the way of financial abuse. It can be coercion. It can be denying adequate care for them. It can be from their loved ones and their own children, who could be encouraging their parents to change their wills, to sell their property or to take a reverse mortgage to enable their children to do that must-have extension of a movie room for their family home. We know—and I have spoken about this on many, many occasions—that this is disproportionately affecting elderly women who come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. We need to continue to highlight this scourge in our society.

I would like to give a shout-out to a former senator in this place. You won't be surprised. I'm always one to acknowledge the contribution of senators. Former senator and now Dr Kay Patterson has been outstanding as the Australian Human Rights Commissioner for age discrimination. She is somebody I worked with in this place and certainly while she has been in that important role. She has travelled the country, far and wide, to raise public awareness of this scourge in our community. In this place, we are sometimes—many times—actually a bit combative in our contributions, but I think it is important to acknowledge those people who make a contribution.

We also need to raise awareness in the community for the purpose of ensuring that, if you have observed elder abuse, if you feel that someone has been coerced or taken advantage of or if there's an older Australian whose wellbeing you have concerns about, you know you have a duty and responsibility to report that to the appropriate authorities. We know that it takes more than just a speech in this place to change attitudes within the community, but I think there is enough goodwill around this chamber and the other place to ensure that we can continue to raise this awareness in the community. It is not just about physical abuse, although obviously that is very concerning; we also know about the psychological abuse, the coercion, the denial of care and the reality that there are those who regularly visit their grandparents when they are getting their Centrelink payment, and they've been to the bank—that they come for their handout. That's not acceptable. Of course, we all want to help out our children and our grandchildren. But if you have any concerns whatsoever that somebody has been taken advantage of it is then your responsibility to report that abuse. We have to take that abuse of our elderly Australians out of that dark place and shine a light on it. The elder abuse hotline is 1300368821. If you feel that that person is in imminent danger, then you should dial triple 0 and report it.