Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We see many members and senators in this building buy into the class war being waged by big business groups against hardworking Australians. I expect it from most—though not all—of the Liberals and Nationals, because, fundamentally, the vast majority of those opposite are the party of the top one per cent. That is their core constituency. We see it every day in this place. We saw it when the Liberals and Nationals opposed a $1 pay increase for the lowest paid employees in this country. At a time when big business was making record profits, when billionaires were getting richer and richer, they opposed that. The Liberals and Nationals refused to fund a pay increase for aged-care workers. The Liberals and Nationals opposed energy bill relief for middle-class families. The Liberals and Nationals opposed housing affordability measures for working families. And the Liberals and Nationals threatened to vote against cheaper medicines. Of course, their former finance minister said that low wages are a core part of their economic plan.

The truth is that the Liberals and Nationals are not here for working people. That isn't who butters their bread. Many of the Liberals and Nationals are representatives in this place for the big end of town. Big business lobbying groups, like the Business Council and the Minerals Council, pay the Liberal and National parties' bills. Quite often, they get to choose the candidates, too. There's now a pipeline of big business lobbyists and hacks directly into this Liberal-National caucus. Once they're here, they continue the class war on behalf of the top one per cent, against everyone else.

Nowhere is that more obvious than when it comes to workplace reforms. There is a bill before parliament that could have passed this year—the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023. That would have given more secure work and higher wages to hundreds of thousands of Australian people. We're talking about a massive improvement to the quality and standard of life for hundreds of thousands of Australian workers and small businesses. Almost 150,000 people working in the gig economy could have access to minimum standards over time. There are 327,000 people working for labour hire companies who could have access to argue for higher rates of pay. Over 200,000 truck drivers, many of whom are small-business operators, would be protected from the deadly race to the bottom in their industry. Millions of Australian workers would have had new protections from being murdered at work by the negligence of their employer or from their wages being stolen. We could pass those measures this year.

We've already had the most comprehensive Senate inquiry into any workplace legislation since the Fair Work Bill itself 15 years ago. I expect the Liberals and Nationals to oppose that, which, of course, they'll do because they don't represent the 14 million Australians who work for a living. They represent the top one per cent, who are leeching off the rest of us, who are undermining good small business—bad businesses who make their money by using loopholes to rip off their staff. Just look who's funding the campaign against this bill. It is being funded almost entirely by the Minerals Council of Australia. That means Gina Rinehart, BHP, Rio Tinto and Glencore—the richest of the rich. They stump up the money, and the Liberals and Nationals come in here and fight the class war on their behalf.

What is very disappointing is when we see members of the crossbench jump on the Liberal and Minerals Council gravy train. Last night Dai Le, the member for Fowler, stood in the House and spoke against large parts of the closing loopholes bill. She said:

The bill takes a radical approach in reforming the Australian workforce …

… … …

If the government seeks to proceed with regulating digital platform work, I'm of the view that it should be confined to the care sector …

That's just incredible. Dai Le, the member for Fowler, wants people who work for Uber, Menulog, DoorDash and other platforms excluded from the bill. Fowler would have amongst the highest number of gig workers in any electorate in Australia, and their local member opposes giving them minimum standards. Her speech came just days after the 15th gig worker died on our roads since 2017. Twelve of those people died in Sydney. But giving them life-saving minimum standards is a bridge too far for the member for Fowler.

The debate on this legislation is really showing us who people are in this building and what they really stand for. The member for Petrie, another hard-working outer-suburban electorate, has opposed a $1 increase for people on the minimum wage, energy bill relief, housing relief—all sorts of measures that would help people in the street. The member for Petrie, one of the conservatives, of course, said:

I've been in this place for 10 years. Do you know how many people have come into my office who are casual workers, gig workers or subcontractors and said: 'Oh, we need to make all these changes'? Zero, none.

Here we go again. According to those opposite, insecure and unsafe work is just a made up issue. Those 15 gig workers and the hundreds of truck drivers who have been butchered are just putting it on. I'm not surprised that the member for Petrie hasn't met with a single one of the tens of millions of casuals, gig workers or subbies across Australia. I'm sure he's met with plenty of big-business lobbyists and executives. After all, they pay his bills.

Take the member for Flynn, Colin Boyce, another one of the conservatives. His comments are the most disgraceful, given how labour hire and insecure work has destroyed communities in his area. He knows that some coalmines in his seat are majority labour hire and they earn 30, 40 or even 50 per cent less than the site rates. He knows that BHP has set up an internal labour hire company to undercut their own site rates. But he says of the same job, same pay provisions that the bill 'provides too much uncertainty' and 'adds additional costs to businesses'. Can you believe that? He's worried about the additional costs of the richest company in Australia, BHP, due to them having to pay their workers fairly. Everyone in that industry knows that it's a load of nonsense.

Whitehaven have just agreed to buy two BHP coalmines in Central Queensland, one in Mr Boyce's seat and the other in Ms Landry's seat, and they have agreed to pay the site rates rather than the labour hire rates, which are substantially lower. If Whitehaven can afford to do this then we know BHP can. But the member for Flynn and the member for Capricornia oppose same job, same pay. The member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, said the bill adds uncertainty and complexity to the employment of labour hire workers. How do the Nationals members from Central Queensland get up in this place, when they know how labour hire has decimated their communities, and say, 'Please we want to continue, we support what's going on'? They should listen to the actual community leaders. We were in Rockhampton two weeks ago for a hearing on this bill, and the Isaac mayor, Anne Baker, told us:

The consequences in our region of labour hire in particular are far reaching. They affect not just the workers but the entire community. Unfair labour practices have become a dark stain on our landscape. They put people in a vulnerable position. They can't put their roots down in our region. They can't borrow money to purchase their own homes. Really, their future decisions are removed from them because they don't have confidence in a permanent shift.

Labour hire isn't just destroying middle-class wages and jobs; it is destroying the very fabric of communities in Queensland, and it's happening with the full support of the National Party.

While there have been economic thugs like BHP pillaging decent wages and unfairly trampling over smaller businesses, I want to commend Whitehaven for doing what it's doing at Blackwater and Daunia mines. I also want to thank the Australian Hotels Association, the Pharmacy Guild, every gig platform except Mable and the vast majority of employers in the road transport industry. There are many positive employers who want these loopholes closed so that their dodgy competitors who are exploiting workers and gaming the system can rely on innovation and productivity instead of on who can pay their people the least.