Belinda Neal (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise with great excitement to support the Fair Work Bill 2008 and I have to say that the previous speaker, the member for Fisher, has demonstrated what I and many people on the side of the chamber have feared, and that is that the opposition cannot give up their support for Work Choices. Given the opportunity at some time in the future, they will attempt to reimpose that workplace scheme again, much to the fear of many of the people in my constituency and Australia-wide.

This bill gives greater fairness and balance to the relationship between workers and employers. One of the keys to happiness for the vast majority of Australians is dignity and fairness in the workplace. This is what this bill delivers. Earlier this year, this Labor government abolished Work Choices and AWAs. This was the delivery of the most essential commitment made to the working families of Australia during the 2007 election. During the last election Work Choices was the issue of the greatest concern for my constituents on the Central Coast of New South Wales. They were distressed by the reductions it caused in their wages and conditions of work, they were frightened by the fact it put their jobs at risk and they were upset that it undermined the quality of life of their families. When I travelled around the Central Coast in the lead-up to the election, the single biggest issue raised by the people I spoke to was the terrible effect of AWAs and their fear of Work Choices. This scourge on the community was created by the last coalition government. The worst aspect of Work Choices was the effect it had on the lowest paid in the community and those who were most vulnerable.

I spoke to many people who had been personally affected by Work Choices: it had made their lives harder. I spoke to a woman who worked in aged care and who had done so for over a decade. She was asked to sign an AWA that meant that she could be asked to travel to a different nursing home at a day’s notice. She had only ever worked in a nursing home in Gosford and she could be required to travel to Newcastle or Sydney’s North Shore. She signed because she needed to keep her job. I spoke to a man who worked in a laundry and was forced to sign an AWA that meant that his wages were cut by one-third and that he received no penalty loading. He was worried that his family would not be able to pay their bills. I spoke to a 17-year-old who went to apply for a job in retail and was asked to sign an AWA on the spot. If he did not, he would not get the job, which paid $7 an hour and provided him with no breaks, not even a toilet break, unless he worked for more than five hours.

This was swept away by the election of the Rudd Labor government and the destruction of AWAs and the passing of the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Bill 2008. This abolished AWAs and started the process towards modern awards. The Fair Work Australia Bill before us implements the balance of the Forward with Fairness policy adopted by the Australian people with the election of the Labor government last year. This creates a balance between a fair workplace and the imperatives of maintaining employment and economic activity in the face of a deteriorating world economy. This bill is simpler, half the number of pages of Work Choices, and simple in its jurisdiction, relying on the corporations power of the Constitution rather than conciliation and arbitration. It enshrines the right to collective bargaining, which is a core imperative for workers effectively negotiating with employers. It is simpler in its use of 10 legislated National Employment Standards and the modern awards are reviewed comprehensively every four years and have wage reviews each year. It is simpler with one stream of agreement making, which applies a no disadvantage test to all agreements to ensure workers do not lose any conditions that they already have. It is also fairer with bargaining in good faith, enforceable by Fair Work Australia, and the entitlements of all workers to be represented by their union if they so choose.

I am particularly pleased that the bill provides for arbitration in the case of low-paid workers where agreement was unable to be reached. This can occur where the parties have genuinely tried to reach agreement and the determination will promote productivity and efficiency in the enterprise. These low-paid workers often have particular difficulty in genuinely negotiating with their employers due to their often less secure employment, lower skill level and reduced resources. This bill recognises their circumstances and makes particular provision to assist them in securing a fair wage and work conditions. I am also particularly pleased to see enhanced access to workplaces being provided by the bill to ensure workers can freely choose to join a union of their calling and that errors in payments, health and safety issues and other matters that detrimentally affect workers can be identified and rectified.

I am also glad that the bill puts in place a more balanced and reasonable scheme in relation to unfair dismissal. It removes the previous government’s absurd definition of ‘small business’ as a business with fewer than 100 employees and also the ‘genuine operational reasons’ provision that undermined the integrity of the workers’ protections. Under this bill there is a reasonable balance of the genuine protection of workers and the need of businesses to employ staff suitable for their business. Under this bill small businesses with fewer than 15 employees have 12 months to assess the suitability of their staff and larger businesses have six months to make that assessment. More particularly, the bill makes it simpler and more transparent for both parties by providing a fair, reasonable and simple code for dismissal that ensures that any action for unfair dismissal would not succeed if the code has been complied with. I wish to particularly thank the Your Rights at Work group on the Central Coast and mention in particular Mary Yaegar who was unendingly hardworking and sunny in her outlook.

The fairness of Australia’s industrial relations system is at the core of what this government is as a Labor government. The aspiration of the Australian people for a fair industrial system goes to the core of why the Rudd Labor government was elected. I am confident that this bill contains a system both fairer and simpler than the Work Choices fiasco rejected by the Australian community. I am also confident that the working families of Australia will be satisfied with the choice they have made. I commend the bill to the House.

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