Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the motion. On 24 Apri1 2013 the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,130 people and injuring more than 2,000. Sadly, many of the people who were killed or injured were young women. The tragedy highlighted the often appalling and unsafe conditions of textile workers in Bangladesh. It is fair to say that garment retailers around the world share a collective responsibility to make sure that these tragedies cannot happen in the future. They owe it to the families of those who lost their lives to do take concrete actions to ensure this sort of thing cannot happen again. There is price to pay for cheap fashion, and this tragedy reminds us that it is often low-paid and vulnerable workers in some of the poorest countries in the world who pay the price.

The Bangladesh accord is an independent agreement designed to make all garment factories in Bangladesh safe workplaces. Signatories commit to ensuring that factory repairs are carried out and that workers at the factories continue to be paid a salary. The accord is a legally binding agreement that to date covers over 1,700 factories. It has been signed by over 175 apparel corporations from 20 countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia; two global trade unions, IndustriALL and UNI; and numerous Bangladeshi unions.

Companies pay a fee based on the volume of product produced in Bangladesh garment factories and the money goes towards establishing a building standard for structural, fire and electrical safety in all garment factories in Bangladesh, as completed in 2014; structural, fire and electrical inspections of all factories covered by the accord; advising and monitoring brands and retailers of the effective implementation of remedial plans; and coordinating worker training programs, including health and safety committees and worker complaints mechanisms. More than 550 factories have been inspected already and the accord is well on its way to achieving its goal of 1,500 factory inspections by September 2014.

Australian companies who have signed the agreement include the Cotton On Group, Forever New, K-Mart Australia, Pacific Brands, Pretty Girl Fashion Group Pty Ltd, Speciality Fashions Australia, Target Australia and Woolworths Australia. I want to commend those companies for supporting the accord and for supporting the people who work in the factories.

Significantly, though, there are still a number of major garment retailers in Australia who are yet to sign the accord. Best and Less and the Just Group—which operates stores including Just Jeans, Jacqui E, Jay Jays, Portmans, Peter Alexander, Dotti and Smiggle—are yet to sign. I call on those Australian companies and those internationally who are yet to sign the accord to support this important agreement, to move to ensure that everybody who works to make their products is paid a living wage and is free to join a union and to collectively bargain in the workplace. We know that freedom of association is a human right that should be shared across the world, not just in rich countries.

In light of all of this, it is extremely disappointing that the Abbott government has decided to cut all funding to Ethical Clothing Australia. I note that there is no speaker from the Abbott government in support of this motion today, which is regrettable. Ethical Clothing Australia has played an invaluable role in ensuring that home workers in Australia's garment industry are afforded fair and decent pay and conditions. Cutting this funding is just another demonstration of the government's attack on fairness and decency—a full-frontal attack on hardworking Australians and their families in which the list of punitive measures is breathtaking.

This budget does not just attack programs to support ethical clothing; the budget attacks the Australian way of life more generally. We have seen the introduction of the $7 GP tax that is going to fundamentally undermine Medicare. I might add it is a GP tax that I talked about during the Griffith by-election, and everyone from the Prime Minister to the foreign minister to my Liberal opponent wandered around town saying that Labor was just scaremongering about the GP tax. That is obviously not true. We have seen in this budget the introduction of that GP tax.

We are also seeing cuts to the indexation of the pension and disability support payments, an increase in the pension age, the petrol tax, the $80 billion cuts to health and education, cuts to family payments, and cuts to the ABC and the SBS, despite the promise not to make any cuts. There are cuts to Indigenous affairs programs, an increase in the interest payable on student loans and, of course, the increase in fees for university courses. The list goes on when it comes to what this government has cut in its budget. At a time when around the world companies are signing up in support of fairness and decency, we have a government that is breaking its contract of fairness and decency with the Australian people.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13 : 23 to 16 : 03

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