Michaelia Cash WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
2:00 pm
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Senator Watt. Minister, in the more than 700 pages of the 'closing the loopholes' bill and explanatory memorandum introduced to parliament yesterday, can you identify one measure that will improve productivity in Australian businesses?
Sarah Henderson Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education
What a disgrace this legislation is! Appalling—and you're smiling!
Sue Lines President
Order! Senator Watt, please resume your seat. Senator Henderson, can we have a question time where you don't constantly interject? I'm calling you to order.
Government senators interjecting—
Order on my right! Minister Watt.
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Thank you, President. I think that's a record, even for Senator Henderson; I hadn't even opened my mouth and apparently I was a disgrace!
Michaelia Cash WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Compared to you, Senator Watt!
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
It didn't take Senator Cash and the opposition long to do what they love doing most, which is to keep workers' wages low.
Sue Lines President
Minister, please resume your seat.
Senator Wong, order! Minister Watt, please continue.
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
As I was saying, it didn't take the opposition very long to revert to type, to revert to their happiest place, which is keeping wages low and keeping productivity low. Because of course—
Opposition senators interjecting—
The:
Minister Watt, please resume your seat. I'm waiting for order. Minister Watt.
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
They don't like being reminded—
Sarah Henderson Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education
Stop smiling!
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
I'm smiling because we have a government now that is actually committed to getting wages moving again. And do you know what? That's a good thing!
Opposition senators interjecting—
Sue Lines President
Minister Watt, please resume your seat. Order on my left! Minister Watt.
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
I think it says a lot about the opposition that rather than smiling about workers' wages going up, they frown, they scowl and they yell. That's because the one thing that—
Michaelia Cash WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Real wages continue to go backwards!
Sue Lines President
Minister Watt, please resume your seat. Order! This is disrespectful of the Senate. I have had to call order constantly and we are two minutes in. Minister Watt.
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
So, yes, I am smiling about the fact that we've got wages moving again. I am smiling about the fact that already this government's workplace relations reforms—
Sue Lines President
Minister Watt, please resume your seat. Senator Henderson, I named you at the beginning of question time and you have just continued to disregard my requests that you refrain from constant interjections. Minister Watt.
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
So, yes, I am in my happy place, and I think that the Labor Party are in our happy place, where we're actually getting wages moving again. And it turns out that's what the people of Australia wanted! In fact already, due to the reforms that—
Sue Lines President
Minister Watt, please resume your seat. Senator Cash.
Michaelia Cash WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Thank you, my point of order is in relation to relevance. The question—
Government senators interjecting—
Sue Lines President
Just a moment, Senator Cash, please resume your seat. Calling for order also applies to the right-hand side of the chamber! I have a senator on her feet, raising a point of order. She is entitled to be heard in silence. Senator Cash, please continue.
Michaelia Cash WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
I have a point of order in relation to direct relevance. The question was very specific: I asked the minister to identify one measure in the bill that will improve productivity in Australian businesses.
Sue Lines President
Thank you, Senator Cash. There has been so much disorder since you asked your question, I think it has been very hard for the minister to actually get to the substance. I will remind him of your question, but I would also ask that senators on both sides of the chamber listen in silence. Minister Watt.
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Senator Cash, I don't have to refer to one measure only in this bill that will lift productivity; the entire package is going to lift productivity in the workplace. That's because something that eluded the opposition for the 10 years they were in office was that cooperative workplaces are productive workplaces.
Opposition senators interjecting—
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Cooperative, safe workplaces are productive workplaces.
Sue Lines President
Senator Cash, I just called the chamber to order, and the minute the minister was on his feet you continued to interject. Minister Watt.
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
But I'm happy that at last, after 10 years of government, it took returning to opposition for the opposition to actually care about productivity, because their uncooperative, conflict based workplace relations system delivered the lowest decade of productivity growth that we have had in 60 years. That's what your program of workplace relations did: low productivity, low wages. We're turning that around.
Michaelia Cash WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
2:05 pm
Minister, in the more than 700 pages of the closing-loopholes bill, can you identify one measure that will make it easier for Australian businesses to employ more workers?
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
In fact, there are provisions within this bill that seek to treat workers who have been mistreated for the past 10 years under the opposition to receive employee-like conditions. I understand that your life's mission is to keep workers' wages low. I understand that your economic policy was to deliberately keep wages low. Australians voted against that, and they kicked you out.
At some point you've got to recognise that the party that had a low-wages policy lost the last election. The people of Australia didn't want your 10 years of low wage growth, low productivity and conflict based workplaces. They voted for cooperative workplaces that were going to lift wages, and we're already doing it. Even in the time we've been in power we've had the strongest jobs growth for the first year of any Australian government. We've created half a million jobs, 85 per cent of them full-time, and wages are growing at their fastest rate for a decade—and we're only getting started. (Time expired)
Michaelia Cash WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
2:07 pm
How much extra in costs will the bill add to Australian businesses? And how much of that do you expect them to pass on to consumers?
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
It's good to have the scare campaign from Senator Cash rolling out again, because remember what she said about the last package of workplace relations reform? The last time we did industrial relations reform in this chamber, what did Senator Cash say? She said it was going to take us back to the Dark Ages. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing anyone running around there in chain mail, in body armour, like in the Dark Ages. I'm seeing workers getting paid what they deserve.
Michaelia Cash WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Again, it is a point of order in relation to direct relevance. The question was in relation to how much this bill will raise cots on businesses and, in relation to those costs, how much the government expects them to go on to consumers. It was a very specific question.
Sue Lines President
Thank you, Senator Cash. I will remind the minister of your question.
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Let's put all this in context. As a percentage of the total wages budget of Australia, these changes will add one-tenth of one per cent of what wages are in Australia. And, unlike what the opposition are saying, this is not a cost to the economy; this is a cost to the small number of businesses that are underpaying their workers by exploiting the loopholes that the last government left. This money won't be taken out of the economy. It will go into workers' pockets, where it belongs, so that they can actually deal with cost-of-living pressures, pay their bills and get up on their feet. Workers who are currently being underpaid will have more money to spend in their local communities, and we support that. (Time expired)