Jodie Campbell (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak this afternoon in support of the Fair Work Bill 2008, continuing on from last night when I was talking about where a company forced an agreement on workers which specifically excluded things like rest breaks, incentive based payments and bonuses, annual leave loadings, overtime payments, shiftwork allowances and penalty rates. This left already low-paid workers up to $190 a week worse off. Yet another such agreement negotiated in Tasmania saw evening and weekend penalty rates removed, meal breaks and leave loadings stripped away and a reduction of public holiday payments. Another agreement—and I use that term loosely, because it implies that these so-called agreements were arrived at by mutual consent rather than the reality, which is that they were forced upon workers—saw hourly rates reduced by an average of $1.47 and casuals under the AWA only receiving a 20 per cent loading in comparison with the 25 per cent under the award.

I could go on, as could all members of this House, about the range of conditions and fundamental rights which were systematically stripped away under Work Choices—well, no more. This government’s workplace relations system is underpinned by that notion of which I spoke earlier: a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. It has a strong safety net of 10 legislated National Employment Standards for all employees and it will see developed a modern award system which ensures decent wages and conditions for award-covered employees while allowing upward flexibility for high-income earners through common-law contracts. Importantly, these cannot override the award safety net; employees must be left better off.

The National Employment Standards, or NES, will cover things such as the maximum weekly hours of work, requests for flexible working arrangements, parental leave and related entitlements, annual leave, personal and carers leave, community service and long service leave, public holidays and issues surrounding termination. Another feature of the NES is that from 1 January 2010 employers will be required to give the Fair Work Information Statement to all new employees. We will have in place a framework of collective bargaining rights and responsibilities, and of freedom of association for all workers and their right to representation.

There will be an independent agency, Fair Work Australia, which will act as a one-stop shop for workplace relations services, advice and compliance. Fair Work Australia will be able to exercise a full suite of dispute resolution powers at the request of just one party. This is significantly different from Work Choices, which unfairly required both parties to agree before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission could even mediate. Fair Work Australia can conduct mediation and conciliation, make recommendations, conduct hearings, issue binding determinations and arbitrate on any matter by consent of parties involved.

The bottom line is that the Australian people know exactly what they are getting in this legislation; they know because they voted for it. Unlike those opposite, who made no mention of their radical workplace agenda before they were elected in 2004, Labor were open, upfront and honest with people. I am delivering for the people of Bass exactly what I promised as I campaigned last year—a fair, balanced, productive and progressive workplace relations system which protects the most vulnerable workers. We are delivering a system which has been developed through consultation and which returns to the workplace that fairness which has been so sorely lacking. This is the undertaking which we as the Labor Party took to the Australian people and which I took to the hard workers of Northern Tasmania. I took it also to the employers of Bass. We are not skewing the system so far the other way so as to fundamentally disadvantage employers. What we have done and what we are continuing to do is create a balance, one which strives for fairness on all sides and which works towards a simple system where there is trust and respect on both sides—and that trust and respect is absolutely vital.

One of the many abhorrent features of Work Choices was the adversarial nature of negotiations it created. There was a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude, and that is a situation which is fraught and, quite frankly, unnecessary. Where those opposite slashed the safety net, we are restoring it. Where Work Choices and those opposite gave no effective right to collectively bargain, Fair Work Australia says that an employer must collectively bargain when that is what the majority of employees want. Work Choices was about AWAs; Fair Work Australia’s focus is on collective bargaining. Work Choices left the independent industrial umpire powerless and marginalised unions. Fair Work Australia is about a balance.

Fair Work Australia will encourage collective, enterprise-level bargaining underpinned by good faith bargaining obligations. This system will ensure that across Northern Tasmania and across Australia everyone in the workplace is treated fairly, decently and with respect. There will be a simpler unfair dismissal system. This will balance the need for employers, including small business, to manage their workforce while safeguarding the right of employees to be protected from unfair dismissal.

I have spoken with many workers, employers and union officials and I am confident that this legislation goes about restoring fairness and justice to Australia’s industrial legislation. Secretary of Unions Tasmania, Mr Simon Cocker, has argued consistently for the need to re-establish an even-handedness and a confidence as we move forward with workplace reform. Mr Cocker has been a strong advocate for a safety net, minimum wages, collective bargaining, a strong unfair dismissal system, the abolition of AWAs, the recognition of the right of workers to withdraw their labour, the recognition also of the right of workers to be represented in the workplace and the recognition that independent contractors are often little different from employees and need protection from unfair contracts. It has been a long and passionate fight, and I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to his efforts and the efforts of people like Cindy O’Connor who worked tirelessly on two fronts throughout the tyranny of Work Choices. They not only waged a vital public awareness campaign but also fought consistently for the rights of individual workers who fell victim to Work Choices.

This is the fourth major rewrite of our industrial legislative landscape in 15 years. It is the legislation and the plan for the future which we took to the Australian people and which I took to the voters of Bass. I fear those opposite are yet to heed the will of the Australian people. I fear that at the first opportunity they will look to resurrect Work Choices. It is part of their psyche and it is an extreme industrial relations agenda in which they believe wholeheartedly. Despite what they say now, despite claiming that Work Choices has been scrapped as a policy, we know and the Australian people know that there is no reason to trust what those opposite say when it comes to industrial relations. They abused the trust of Australian workers before and they will do it again.

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