Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

We are back on irony again today. We have a government making amendments to a bill called the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Bill 2014, and they are doing it by introducing it yesterday at 4:30 and giving it one hour of debate today before they gag it. It is supposed to be about public governance, performance and accountability, and what we are seeing here is a government that does not want scrutiny or transparency in any way. That meant, if we have an hour of debate, that the debates by the members of the government today were very important because they were the first real opportunity that the public of Australia, public servants and many members on this side get to understand what is actually in this bill.

They did not have many speakers—I think they had one—but they also spent their time not talking about the bill but talking about us. One person spoke on this and he spent the whole time talking about us rather than this bill, so it is very difficult to get a sense of the detail in this bill. We had the member for Bowman saying we were making a fuss about nothing and it was just cross-referencing, minor amendments, nothing serious, basically our bill, really nothing to worry about, nothing to see here. Then we had the minister saying our bill was a disaster and they had to put the flesh on the bones, which means they had to fill it up and change it. So which of those is true and what those changes are we have had since 4:30 yesterday afternoon to get our heads around and one hour to debate today. Basically, the government is forcing through a bill that has not been scrutinised and by the words of the minister should be because they have added considerable flesh to the bones.

We on this side do know of one major change in this bill compared to the original bill last year, and it is one that I am not surprised the government does not want to talk about. In fact, the Prime Minister in the House last week denied that there would be serious changes attached to the abolition of the Commonwealth Cleaning Services Guidelines, but this bill abolishes protections for cleaners who work in government departments. That is quite a savage change. For the benefit of the member for Bowman: I would not call that cross-referencing. You cannot call abolishing protections for cleaners something as simple as 'cross-references' and get away with that. Nor would I call it flesh on the bones. In fact, for the cleaners it is probably more like flesh off the bone. In fact, we know that cleaners stand to lose $344 a week because of this government's decision—a cut from the Clean Start rate of $22.02 to the award rate of $17.49. It is a really quite savage act hidden in what is a very large bill pushed through this parliament without the opportunity for any real scrutiny.

Like much of the government's budget, it will hit the lowest paid workers in Australia. This hit to cleaners, who we already know are Australia's lowest paid workers, is being pushed through under the guise of removing red tape and shows just how ideologically driven this government actually is. We know that this government is not really willing or happy to talk about their budget very much, so it is again not surprising that they have not mentioned this at all in any of the speeches that were made today.

Last Monday we heard the Prime Minister stand at the despatch box and say that there would be no cuts to cleaners' pay. He said:

I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that no cleaner's pay is reduced.

He went on:

This government has not reduced the pay of any cleaner full stop, end of story. This government has not reduced the pay of any cleaner.

He might be able to get away with that because he said it on Monday, but this bill that the government is pushing through today without appropriate scrutiny does exactly that. It is a savage attack on some of the lowest paid workers, and we have moved amendments to the bill in the consideration in detail stage to ensure that these changes can be debated in a reasonable way.

If the government wants to make the story of this government about a lack of transparency and arrogance then this is the way to do it—to introduce at 4:30 one afternoon a bill that has things hidden in it that they are not prepared to concede: nasty cuts to some of the lowest paid workers. Hide it in a bill, introduce it at 4:30 in the afternoon, gag debate, give it an hour the next day and then fail to mention it. Hope no-one notices. 'Maybe no-one will notice.' Well they will. The cleaners of Australia who suddenly find themselves over $300 a week worse off are going to notice, and they will remember this day when you pushed it through without appropriate scrutiny. (Time expired)

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