Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion and the member for Gorton’s comments on the very severe impacts of the Howard government’s extreme industrial relations laws on people in rural and regional Australia. How interesting and bamboozling it has been to listen to the comments made by the member for Fisher! He shows how out of touch and arrogant this government has become. When you speak to people on the ground and hear their concerns firsthand, ordinary everyday Australians are saying how concerned they are about the extreme impacts of this government’s Work Choices legislation. The member for Fisher certainly shows how out of touch the government has become.

Throughout the nation, we are seeing families hurting from this extreme Work Choices legislation. In particular, those in rural and regional areas are really feeling it and doing it tough. We already have families under much pressure, with increasing interest rates and the cost of living rising all the time. And now, of course, the Work Choices legislation is impacting very severely on families.

The member for Gorton spoke before about federal Labor’s industrial relations task force. Earlier in the year the task force visited Richmond and we had a forum to which many locals came along. They spoke about their concerns and their situations and were able to tell us firsthand about how their working conditions had been taken away, about how their wages had been slashed, about how they had lost their penalty rates and about how scared they were for the future of their families. This is what the task force heard. I continue to hear from locals every single day about how they are being impacted right across all the different industries and how terrified they are about their working conditions and the future.

One point that is very pertinent to rural and regional areas is that people are afraid of speaking out. When they approach me about it, they are terrified to speak to the media about it. They are terrified to make their conditions and their concerns known more widely. It is different in regional and rural areas. If you are in a big city then you might be able to go to the other side of town to look for work, but if you are in a regional area and have spoken up about how severely you have been treated then everyone is going to know and everyone is going to talk about it. That makes it very hard for people in regional areas.

It is just part of the intimidatory nature of this legislation that it keeps people from speaking out at all and just adds to their fear about the whole situation. It certainly adds to the distress they are already feeling when they are just too scared to speak out. I commend those who have so bravely spoken out, particularly those in my electorate who have spoken about how their conditions have been taken away.

In rural and regional areas we also have teenage unemployment. In my electorate of Richmond, 30 per cent of teenagers, or almost one in three, are unemployed—a huge amount. When these young people are trying to get jobs, when they look at the unfair working conditions they could be facing, it is very difficult for them. How can they negotiate with a large multinational employer? How are they able to do that? It is an unbalanced relationship. They have no power in those situations. The same applies to many other people across the community. But, with those high rates of teenage unemployment, it is particularly difficult for young people, desperately struggling as they are, to get into the workforce.

Many small business owners have also told me how adversely affected they have been. If a business down the road is paying less in wages, how can they compete? Where is the even playing field? A lot of small business owners have told me how severely this has impacted on the way they carry out their business—and often small business owners are the backbone of regional areas.

There is a huge proportion of elderly people in my electorate—and often they are the people who fought very hard to get decent working conditions. Many of them are really concerned about the working conditions for their children and grandchildren in the future.

Another major aspect for regional areas is the effect that the Work Choices legislation will have on tourism. Tourism is one of the major businesses in my electorate of Richmond. It really is the backbone of the community. If people across Australia are forced to trade away a lot of their leave, what will happen to areas that rely on tourism? Of course, the numbers will go down and we will not have as many people travelling to those areas. That in turn will impact on the number of jobs in the area and affect the whole local community.

A lot of tourism operators have told me how concerned they are as we see the full effects of these extreme industrial relations laws. The reality is that the only way to get rid of these extreme laws is to get rid of the Howard government, because only a federal Labor government will restore fairness and equity in the workplace.

This Thursday is a national day of action. We are going to be seeing hundreds of thousands of people across Australia standing up to the Howard government’s extreme legislation. I know that in regional and rural areas we will be seeing thousands of people as well. I commend all those who will be attending those rallies. (Time expired)

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