Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bass for his question and note that I had a very enjoyable time in Tasmania last week. I visited the member for Bass, the member for Franklin and a number of others. I did not happen to catch up with Kevin Harkins, though, which was a little disappointing.

There are more than one million employers in Australia—and, whilst the vast majority of employers do the right thing by their employees, there will inevitably be bad employers out there, just as there are bad employees. This government has put in place very strong protections. The fairness test ensures that penalty rates cannot be traded away without proper compensation. The Workplace Authority checks all the new agreements. That does not happen with the Labor Party’s 45c-an-hour contracts. The Workplace Ombudsman goes after employers who do the wrong thing, but there will always be some bosses who try to get away with breaking the law.

My attention has been drawn to the transcript of an interview on the ABC late on Friday night. It was a very interesting interview, I might say. It was an interview with Cassie Whitehill. Cassie Whitehill said:

It was the last working day before Christmas, so it was a Friday. It was the day after our Christmas dinner and I got a call to the office. … I went in with my friend …

But her boss:

… asked her to leave the premises while he spoke to me for two minutes and I went into his office and he closed the door and just said, “I’m terminating your employment.”

I said, “Why?”. He said, “I don’t have to give you a reason. Don’t try and back me into a corner.”

I said, “What are the reasons?”‘ He said, “I’m not telling you why. That’s just the way it is.”

He said, “I want you to resign on the spot.”

I said, “I’m not going to resign.”

He said, “I want you to sign a deed of release to say that you won’t bad mouth us or sue us or anything.”

I said, “I’m not signing anything.”

Then he went on to offer a week’s pay and she said, ‘I’m not signing.’ What sort of boss would treat an employee like that? The boss was not from the Lilac City Motor Inn—we remember what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition did to them—or a painter on a government ad or something. Who was this boss who sacked this employee and would not give her reasons? It was the secretary of the Australian Services Union. And you know what, Mr Speaker? That man, Sean Kelly, is the President of the Labor Party in Tasmania. So the president of the Labor Party in Tasmania goes and sacks an employee, gives no reason and tells her to get her friend out of the office so there is no record. The ABC interviewer went on to ask whether Cassie went to the union’s head office. Cassie said yes. The interviewer asked, ‘You were not offered union support to be in the office with you?’ Cassie said no. The interviewer continued: ‘Or any other workplace support? And you were told you were sacked on the spot and no reason had to be given?’ Cassie said, ‘Yes, that’s right.’ It is an alarming case. Cassie Whitehill has had a pretty tough time. Her mother was terminally ill in palliative care, and a few days afterwards, very sadly, she lost a child through a miscarriage. The ABC pointed this out. The interviewer asked: ‘So in December last year you lost your job, you lost your baby and you lost your mum?’ She said, ‘Yes, all in the space of five days.’

Cassie called Simon Cocker, the head of the union’s peak body, Unions Tasmania. She said:

The same day I was dismissed, I phoned Unions Tasmania and spoke with Simon Cocker and he advised me there wasn’t much he could do but if I wanted to I could take it to the anti-discrimination tribunal …

Mr Cocker said the union has no role in the internal affairs of any other unions. I found that hard to believe. The head of the ASU is sacking one of his employees, but I thought, ‘If she goes to the ASU, she might get a response.’ So I did not go to Kevin07 this morning; I went to the ASU website. I wondered, ‘What do they do when it comes to unfair dismissal?’ The ASU website says:

The ASU handles many cases of unfair dismissal each year. Generally we obtain a better outcome ...

That is what the ASU say. They did not lift a finger for Cassie.

See this speech in context