Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

recognises the enormous hurt to Australian working men and women owing to the enactment of the Work Choices legislation;

(2)

recognises the extraordinary contribution of Australian rural and regional workers to their communities and the national economy;

(3)

recognises the particular damage to employment conditions and employment prospects in rural and regional Australia;

(4)

takes immediate action to restore protection for employment conditions and employment prospects in rural and regional Australia; and

(5)

takes note of the Howard Government’s agenda to remove employment conditions and employment security, particularly in regional and rural Australia.

Last Saturday, Victorians voted in large numbers for the return of the Bracks government and, although the reasons for the re-election of the Labor government are many and varied, there is no doubt that one of the reasons was a resounding rejection of the Howard government’s Work Choices legislation. Interestingly, Labor continues to enjoy extraordinary support in regional Victoria. In fact, Labor maintained dominance in regional Victoria, while the Liberal Party went backwards. Only The Nationals, by walking away from the extreme and unfair IR laws, made any gains whatsoever for the conservatives in my state.

The fact is that, however unpopular such laws are across the nation, Work Choices legislation is really on the nose in rural and regional Australia—and for good reason. Labor’s IR task force has this year been to many towns and regional areas, including Launceston, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Townsville and others, which I am sure will be mentioned in the debate today. From the meetings we have held in those regions, I can conclude that there is a high degree of anxiety about the way in which the Commonwealth has chosen to enact legislation on regulating workplaces across the country.

Last month the task force visited Devonport, in north-west Tasmania, and spoke to Phil Upton and his wife about the severe cut to his wage after his employer was bought out by another company. In effect, Phil was forced to sign an agreement that stripped him of all penalty rates and overtime provisions, which led to a cut of almost $200 in his gross weekly income. This obscene wage cut has forced him to find other work and, indeed, he is now employed on a casual basis in north-west Tasmania.

In Bundaberg last week, Labor’s IR task force met with a number of church leaders, small businesses and rural workers. One such worker was David Bunyoung, who was sacked without cause. At the end of his shift in August this year, this man received a letter which indicated that, for operational reasons, he was no longer employed. He had received no prior warning, but he suspects that he was sacked because he was injured for two weeks in May and claimed on WorkCover for that period. David estimates that, in the nine years he worked for his employer, he took no more than seven days off. Indeed, until he was sacked in August this year, in 42 years of work he had never been counselled regarding his employment. This could not have happened, and would not have happened, if Work Choices legislation was not in force in this country.

The task force was also provided with a copy of a non-union collective agreement which regulates fruit pickers and vegetable pickers in the region—the Hinkler Park Plantation Horticultural Employees Collective Agreement—which has been certified and filed by the Employment Advocate. This agreement has fundamentally reduced the award conditions that regulate employment in that industry. It has extended the 40-hour week to a 42½-hour week and it has removed all penalty rates for public holidays. It forces employees to work public holidays if the employer so wishes, and it will pay them only a day off in lieu. In other words, they are required to work Christmas Day if the employer says so. Indeed, they will only receive a single rate of pay if they are forced to work those days. The penalty rates have gone, the overtime entitlements have gone and there is now a $2 per hour payment for weekend work, which is about 80 per cent less than the award conditions that had applied to those employees.

As we go throughout the country, particularly in regional and rural Australia, we are seeing that this legislation is hurting ordinary working families. There are fewer employment prospects in many of these country towns. Indeed, they are very badly affected—and when people are sacked, in the way in which David was sacked in Bundaberg, they do not know how to explain it to their family or the community. It is an abject shame that the government has enacted this legislation. (Time expired)

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