Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion of the member for Gorton which is before us today. I want to deal to some extent with some of the arguments that have been raised on the other side of the House. The member for Fisher said that employers tell him that if they have a good employee they will of course not sack them. What else would you expect an employer to say to you? They are not going to say, ‘Even if I have a good employee I will sack them.’ The reality is that 90 per cent of employers out there want to look after and do the right thing by their staff. None of us would argue differently. We on this side of the House are concerned about those who are vulnerable to abuse, and there will always be abuse no matter what the system. Whether it is industrial relations, health, education—whatever you want to talk about—there is a capacity for people to be abused. For me, and for others on this side of the House, the role of government should be to ensure that in those circumstances people have some sort of protection. Our problem with this legislation is that it takes away all of those protections from that percentage of the population who are particularly vulnerable.

The legislation is called Work Choices. Let us talk about what choice relies on. Choice relies on having the capacity to decide between alternatives. We met many people in rural and regional Australia as we travelled around with the task force, and I cannot tell you the number of times we had to meet people in camera because they did not dare talk about their circumstances publicly. What sort of a country are we living in where people in rural and regional areas are too intimidated to say publicly what has happened to them and why they are concerned?

The government argues there has been a massive growth in jobs. Let us not get into how jobs were defined 10 years ago and how they are defined now. The community are not fooled. In my region of the Illawarra and in the electorates along the south-eastern coastline, unemployment still runs at over 10 per cent—double the national average. The member for Richmond mentioned teenage unemployment. In my electorate teenage unemployment, according to the latest figures, is 43 per cent. That is not kids in school; it is but kids who are in neither education nor employment but are registered as looking for work. We are creating a pool of young people with limited skills and education to enable them to make decisions between jobs. They have very little experience.

I hear the stories of these young people all the time—not so much from the young people, but from their parents. The parents, who know that it is wrong, ring in. The young person is put on by an employer. A classic example is: ‘We think we might have an apprenticeship or a traineeship. Why don’t you come in and do a couple of weeks free work experience? We will give you a try for a month and, if you work out, we will give you a traineeship or an apprenticeship.’ The young person goes in and does the work, and suddenly they are told, ‘You are not suitable,’ or, ‘We are no longer employing in that position.’ Funnily enough, a big influx of those sorts of complaints has occurred in the last few weeks. Why would that be? It is because Christmas is coming up and it is nice to have a few cheap extra staff over the Christmas period.

For those people who are most vulnerable to exploitation, laws and legislation should provide some protection. The supposed ‘Work Choices’ legislation does not do that. If you are living in rural or regional Australia, the impacts are far more significant for you. There is probably only one local newspaper or maybe a radio station—let’s not start on the communications legislation—and, if your story is in that newspaper or on that radio station, you fear that every employer will know you complained and therefore no-one will give you a go and you will be stuck. You will not be able to get employment in your local area. Those are the problems we face.

The member for Richmond mentioned tourism. Tourism is a big sleeper in this legislation. I would be interested to hear the other side start to address it. Our task force went to Nowra and heard from several tourism organisations based there that are very worried by the fact that Australians already have a pretty appalling rate of taking their holiday leave. When I grew up, you had your couple of weeks off at Christmas. You packed the tent in the car and off you went to the coast somewhere. People are not taking their leave and travelling as it is. When they are encouraged by this legislation to work over the holiday periods—‘You don’t need to take holidays; cash out the leave’—we will see a real impact on tourism in our regions. (Time expired)

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