Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on this MPI. I was really pleased to learn from the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry that it is actually the failure of the Labor Party that has sustained the National Party—in its origins and today, he said. I can imagine what a terrific conversation the minister had with the senator from St Kilda. ‘Pete,’ he’s saying, it’s the Labor Party, it’s got me. I’ve got to leave the Nats because of the Labor Party and go over to the Libs. I’m sorry, the Labor Party’s let us down again, Pete, and I can’t take it!’ I do not know that anyone really believes that. What has been in the news this week? The Liberal Party and the National Party are going to merge. They are going to develop a deeper and more meaningful relationship. In fact, as someone interested in property law, they seemed to do the property settlement before the marriage. But, anyway, it is all off. The National Party and Liberal Party are divided to the extent they can have a relationship but they will never get married.

I want to praise today in the MPI debate a great woman from regional Australia. I have to say I admire her immensely—Annette Harris, the employee of Spotlight. And haven’t we heard a lot about Spotlight this week? Haven’t some of the things the Prime Minister has had to say been very destructive? He says that the reason the Spotlight employees at Mount Druitt are getting a job is the new IR laws. It is really quite laughable. The DA went in in October last year before the laws were passed. In fact, the shop is not open anymore. Yes, Prime Minister, it is I think a tragedy for me in Chifley and for so many families there. I have 6,000 people who are unemployed. The one thing I desperately want for them and for any person who is unemployed wherever they are in Australia—in the cities, in the regions, in the bush—is that they get a job, because that is how we credential ourselves.

This is where the Prime Minister and I disagree. I do not believe someone who goes from unemployment to employment should be exploited. That is what we have learnt this week. Under the Spotlight AWA at Mount Druitt, people will not be getting penalty rates. Their penalty rates have gone. There is no provision for overtime, so if you work 12 hours—tough—you are still on single rates. Mr Deputy Speaker, even you, the Speaker and the Speaker’s panel have a structured workload that allows you to have a rest break. Why can’t those workers at Spotlight also have a rest break for things like going to the toilet? There is the elimination of breaks between shifts, the elimination of the maximum and minimum shift length and a cap on the number of consecutive days work. They are all gone for those new workers. They are working at inferior rates. But this is the rub. There are 86 other Spotlight stores throughout Australia with 6,000 employees. As sure as night follows day, as someone said in this place, they are going to have a race to the bottom. All those conditions are going to go, they will get 2c an hour and the whole 6,000 current Spotlight employees will be on the same Australian workplace agreement.

The shadow minister for industrial relations talked about the stores in Mount Druitt. I have to say I was not at the original opening of Westfield Mount Druitt, but I was there when Prime Minister Hawke opened the second extension and this year I opened the third extension. We have shops such as Coles. Woolworths, Kmart, Target, Just Jeans, Best and Less and Liquorland. What is going to happen to those workers? Spotlight is not going into Westfield; it is actually going into ShopSmart. I did not open the original shopping centre, but when it changed hands and became ShopSmart I opened that. What is going to happen to the stores that are there—the coffee shop, Colorado et cetera? Those workers are going to be faced with a race to the bottom. We are not going to improve overall employment.

If new stores open where the wages are lowest—Prime Minister, in India the average wage is about US80c an hour—why wouldn’t Spotlight be opening 50, 100, thousands of stores there or in China or in Thailand? Of course, stores open where there is a market. Not only are we going to have competition on price, product and service but all stores now are going to be competitive in terms of the rates of pay they offer and it will be the workers and working families of Australia that will pay the price.

We have heard that 600 additional workers are going to face that pressure in Mount Druitt. In the electorate of Lindsay, Penrith Plaza is a much bigger shopping centre. If I have 600 workers, they will have 1,000. In the electorate of Greenway—the member for Greenway is not in the House—the Westfield shopping centre there is much bigger. In fact, I would say the shopping centre is even bigger than Penrith. So there will be more than 1,000 workers facing the grim reality not only of high petrol prices and increases in their mortgage repayments but also now, if they have work in the local shopping centre, of taking a $90 a week pay cut in trying to bring up their families.

Of course, Spotlight is not just confined to those shopping centres. For example, there is one in Dobell. Mr Deputy Speaker Causley, we have already noted that you have a Spotlight store in your region, as does the member for Cowper in Coffs Harbour. The electorate of Riverina has one. I saw the member for Riverina in here yapping away whilst the minister was responding. It is going to put pressure on the Riverina. Are we saying that there are heaps of jobs and heaps of choices in the Riverina?

In Queensland there is a Spotlight store in the electorate of Moncrieff. There is one in the electorates of Fisher, Dawson—the electorate of the absent parliamentary secretary—Longman, Bonner, Groom and McPherson. Wherever the Spotlight stores are—whether they are in West Burleigh, Townsville, Toowoomba or Mount Gravatt—the workers in those stores know the one thing the Prime Minister has guaranteed them here in question time is that, at some point in their future and their family’s future, they are going to be signing an AWA which will be giving them 2c an hour, all their conditions will go away and they will be worse off but they will be expected to pay for petrol, their mortgage and their kid’s education and it is all for their welfare—and, if it is not for their welfare, it is for the good of the country. I do not think people will believe that.

In South Australia there is a Spotlight store in Clovercrest in Adelaide. There is a Spotlight store in Mount Gambier, in Kingston and in Grey. The same things are going to happen in those shopping centres. The workers in those shopping centres know that they face in future a $90 a week pay cut. They will get 2c for doing away with things like overtime, shift allowance and restrictions on the number of days worked. There are only two Liberal members in Tasmania, but I might point out that the same thing will happen in Burnie in the electorate of Braddon and also in Launceston in the seat of Bass. Gee! The member for Bass has got a lot to say but not one word about the workers who are facing this $90 a week cut. I think the Prime Minister has been very destructive, in the terms of the MPI proposed by the Leader of the Opposition. (Time expired)

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