Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I stand up today because I know that it is my responsibility actually to stand up in this place and fight for the jobs of local residents. It is such a pity that those opposite cannot come to the same simple realisation. Following Qantas's announcement of 5,000 job losses, in my local community in Adelaide we have seen headlines like the following: 'Qantas cuts to hit Adelaide hard', 'Adelaide and Melbourne hardest hit by Qantas cuts' and 'SA Qantas workers angry and shocked'. As a South Australian MP I would particularly like to place on the record my concern and support for these hardworking local residents who now face crippling uncertainty and the ever-present threat of imminent unemployment.

This is particularly hard in my home state because, whilst we have seen in Australia one job loss for every three minutes that the Abbott government has been in office, we know that we have been hit particularly hard in South Australia. First they goaded Holden out of the country. In the PM's words, the Holden workers were 'liberated' from their employment by the decision of Holden to leave. Now we see staff in catering, baggage handling and services facing a similar fate. We know that in Adelaide about 100 local baggage handlers and 150 service staff, including check-in workers, were informed by management of the redundancies. This comes on top of Qantas's previous announcement that 150 jobs would go when Adelaide's Q Catering facility closed at the end of March.

I want to make one thing particularly clear here. These are hardworking, diligent and committed employees. Having had the chance to meet recently with the catering staff and hear from them firsthand of their years of loyal service, of their concern and of their uncertainty, I know that they have done absolutely nothing to deserve this. They deserve a government that will stand up and fight for them in this parliament. Similarly, the baggage handlers at Adelaide airport have worked hard and have successfully improved their productivity. Yet they too now face an unclear and all-too-uncertain future. I note that they told their Transport Workers Union organisers that they feel that they are being punished after they improved productivity. How do you think they feel about having a government that will do absolutely nothing to assist them, will do nothing to support them and has no plan whatsoever for their futures?

This morning I had the chance to speak to someone with a long and proud history of fighting for jobs at Adelaide airport. I spoke to the former member for Hindmarsh, Steve Georganas, who has been down at the airport speaking directly with Qantas workers about how they are feeling at the moment. He told me it is the uncertainty that is killing them. He told me that they believe talk of foreign ownership will mean that even more jobs will be moved offshore and that their jobs will be placed in greater jeopardy. Unfortunately, they are right about this. What those opposite are proposing with the Qantas Sales Act could put at risk tens of thousands of further jobs, with airlines deciding to move their maintenance and facilities offshore.

We do not expect the government to be able to protect every job in Australia. We are not saying that. What we are saying is that we expect the government to act to support workers who are in this situation and we are expect a government who will not make this uncertainty even greater. The new member for Hindmarsh has dismally failed another test. He campaigned citing job security as the biggest issue for his community. He is not wrong about that. But he did not tell the community that he intended to make it worse by voting to jeopardise even more local jobs. We come here with an obligation to fight for our communities, not to sit here mutely and blindly follow the Prime Minister as he threatens to send more of our local jobs offshore. I say to the member for Hindmarsh: if you were so willing to tell the local community what a big issue job security was before the election, I challenge you to stand up and explain directly to the Qantas workers in your electorate why you are going to use your vote to place their jobs at even greater jeopardy. I challenge you to go and visit them and tell them that face to face. It is not enough to say before the election that you care about jobs if you then come in here and use your situation to place in jeopardy the jobs of Qantas workers at Adelaide airport. I say to all of those opposite, but particularly to the member for Hindmarsh: you need to stand up when it counts for local workers. Your opportunity to stand up for airport workers will come, and you will be judged on how you respond.

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