Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009 and the Fair Work (State Referral and Consequential and Other Amendments) Bill 2009, which are before the House in this cognate debate. As a representative from Victoria, I would first like to speak about the issue of state referrals of workplace relations powers. Victoria has referred most of its workplace relations powers, firstly in 1997 under the Kennett Liberal state government and later, in 2003, under the Bracks Labor state government. In effect, there has been no state workplace relations system for most workers in Victoria since 1997, although there are some exceptions to this that are certainly worthy of further comment.

In 1997, with the first referral, there were approximately 356,000 workers—that was around 21 per cent of the state’s workforce—who were stranded under the infamous schedule 1A of the Workplace Relations Act 1996. This was a result of a partial referral of Victoria’s workplace relations powers under that state’s Commonwealth Powers (Industrial Relations) Act 1996. These affected workers were effectively cut off and shut out of any form of workplace relations system. Denied access to full federal award coverage, they received only a basic five conditions, being four weeks annual leave with no loading, one week of paid sick leave, unpaid parental leave, notice of termination and a minimum rate of pay for the first 38 hours of work in a week, with no requirement at all for payment for hours worked over and above that time.

It was the Bracks Labor government that undid this appalling situation in 2003 with the passing of the Federal Awards (Uniform System) Act 2003 that referred the necessary powers to the Commonwealth that would allow for common rule orders to be applied to federal awards in Victoria and extend coverage to previously award-free employees. Since that time, of course, the industrial relations landscape has changed. We saw the Liberal Party, the party of Work Choices, ram through the last parliament legislation that denied working people the right to fairness. That the Liberal Party did this without any meaningful debate or discussion outside their own party room or hardline supporters shows their ongoing contempt for the working people of Australia. It took the election of the Rudd Labor government and the implementation of our Forward with Fairness policy to turn this around. Creating a uniform national workplace relations system was a key commitment of this policy. Unlike the Liberal and National party’s attempts, we discussed, we listened and we changed parts of the bill during the many long months of negotiations with industry, unions and other political parties, to finally see the Fair Work Act passed through parliament earlier this year. For the benefit of those opposite, this is a process called consultation.

The passing of the Fair Work Act brings with it the opportunity to deliver a balanced and modern workplace relations system for Australia. These bills provide the mechanisms for all states to refer their remaining workplace relations power to the Commonwealth through sensible and practical transition provisions. With regard to Victoria, there are provisions in the bill to accept the referral of the Victorian government’s workplace relations powers to the Commonwealth under the Fair Work Act. In particular, this referral will extend the Fair Work Act in Victoria to cover unincorporated and public sector employers and all of their employees, and will also cover outworkers. This transition will move the referral under the Workplace Relations Act 1996 as extended by the state’s Commonwealth Powers (Industrial Relations) Act 1996 to Australia’s new workplace relations system under the Fair Work Act. As I have already explained, under the Workplace Relations Act not all parts or powers were supported by Victoria’s referral at the time, making the subsequent laws very complex and inconsistent in their application and leaving many workers out in the cold without even a regular pay rise or any standard award conditions. Other states are able to refer powers under this bill in the same way as Victoria. This is a fair and balanced process that, unlike the disastrous Victorian transfer of workplace relations powers, will allow for the transfer of state systems to the uniform national system without trapping workers outside of award coverage.

The Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009 repeals the current Workplace Relations Act other than schedules Nos 1 and 10, which deal with registered organisations. Importantly, this bill provides for the application of the National Employment Standards and minimum wages to all national system employees from the starting date of 1 January 2010. Working people, many who have previously been forced on to John Howard’s take-it-or-leave-it AWAs, will receive the benefit of the 10 minimum National Employment Standards if their current agreement contains inferior conditions, and will also receive minimum safety net wages.

As we saw with the introduction of Work Choices by the Liberal Party, they just do not have any consideration or care for the majority of Australians who have to work for a living. Ripping off wages and conditions is par for their course, and I am sure nothing has changed and we will hear more of that during this debate.

There are also provisions in these bills that ensure an employee’s take-home pay cannot be reduced as a result of any transition to a modern award from 1 January 2010. Fair Work Australia will be able to rectify a reduction in one or more employees’ take-home pay as has resulted from the award modernisation. There is also a capacity for Fair Work Australia to make special low-paid workplace determinations in areas that have previously been covered by an expired collective agreement based transitional instrument. The bill also gives Fair Work Australia the power to make representation orders, including the preservation of historical demarcations derived from state or federal award coverage. Although many people now like to think that Work Choices is dead, it is not yet. This nasty piece of legislation introduced by the Howard government will go out the door on 1 July this year with the commencement of the major sections of the Fair Work Act and the passage of these transition bills. But have no doubt: the Liberal Party are still the party of Work Choices and, left up to them, Work Choices will be back bigger and badder than ever. I commend these bills to the House.

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