Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Fair Entitlements Guarantee Amendment Bill 2014 is very disturbing legislation. This is legislation that attacks families and this is legislation that attacks workers. This is bad legislation. It is legislation that goes to the heart of what we as a fair society should be. The legislation is yet another attack on workers, on their entitlements and on their conditions. This is yet another ideologically driven assault on workers that has been proposed by big business, the Business Council of Australia, and the Commission of Audit, all organisations that do not care and have no commitment to the workers in our country. To be quite frank, if big business cared for their workers, it would be a much better place because the level of productivity would increase. You need a company and a government that has a commitment to those people who work for you. They are part of your family. Unfortunately, this government does not view workers as being part of its family, rather it portrays them as being the enemy—those who need to be undermined and those who do not deserve the protection that legislation can afford them.

This government said one thing before the election and another thing after the election. I know that no-one in Australia, particularly no-one on this side of the parliament, will be surprised by that because on absolutely every issue of major importance this government has been found wanting. Time and time again, it has demonstrated just how little commitment it has to maintaining its promises and maintaining what it said before the election and after the election. Before the election, Minister Abetz, guaranteed that there would be no assault on workers' conditions and entitlements. There was absolutely no indication before the election that this legislation was waiting in the wings.

The Fair Entitlements Guarantee, or FEG, is legislation which is legislating a safety net scheme of last resort that covers certain unpaid employment entitlements when employees lose their jobs through the liquidation or bankruptcy of their employer. The first legislation we had in this area was GEERS, which was generated when National Textiles went into liquidation. I tended to call that the Stan Howard legislation. GEERS was replaced by a much fairer scheme when Labor was in power, and that is the current scheme. It provides up to 13 weeks of unpaid wages, annual leave, long-service leave, pay in lieu of notice with a maximum of five weeks, and redundancy pay of a maximum of four weeks per year of service.

It is important to realise that when a person loses their job under these circumstances, it is very difficult to find another job. We only have to look to the automobile industry to see the problems that will exist for those workers who become redundant to understand just how difficult it will be for many of those workers who have worked in industries for very long periods of time. If a person has been working in an industry for 20 years, under the current scheme their entitlement would be much greater than their entitlement under this legislation that we are debating tonight which provides capped assistance for redundant pay entitlements to a threshold of 16 weeks pay and aligns the payment with the maximum payable under the National Employment Standards. This is a sinister, it is callous, it is unfair and it is going to really crush some workers.

These are people who have mortgages to pay, they have kids who are going to school, they need to put food on the table and they need to look to some certainty. But when this legislation comes in it will reduce their entitlements enormously. It is a cost-saving exercise by this government—by a government that has absolutely no commitment to or value for workers. It really stands condemned. The government states that it will save $618.5 million over eight years by terminating the Automotive Transformation Scheme from January 2018. But this also includes a number of harsh cuts.

This government has demonstrated through the way they handled the issues surrounding the automotive industry that they have no commitment to jobs and they have absolutely no job plan whatsoever. When it comes to manufacturing jobs, the only issue that they see is how they can abrogate their responsibility. They have absolutely no qualms whatsoever about seeing jobs going offshore and overseas. The government really does stand condemned.

Labor is very proud of the fact that since 2007 unpaid workers' entitlements have been paid to over 70,000 employees around the country. I have a feeling that this is something those on the other side of this House would be much happier about if it had not happened, because they do not have this same commitment to workers. They do not value workers. They do not really believe, as I have already stated, that we need to have a job plan in place—a plan that is going to set out where we as a nation wish to go as far as jobs are concerned.

It is all very well, standing up in this parliament and spruiking on the airwaves that they are going to create one million new jobs. But in actual fact, unemployment is over six per cent. I do not believe that those on the other side of this House have an answer to this. They have already demonstrated how their actions in the area of jobs and managing the economy is bad for our economy. And this unfair budget, which they have still been unable to get through the Senate is really undermining confidence in our economy. It is leading to massive cuts to industry investment and to education and training, and these have all led to this undermining of confidence within our economy.

This is a government of broken promises. As I mentioned, the government made absolutely no mention of changes to the FEG before the election. Despite telling voters before the election that there would be no changes to workers' pay and condition, the government is slowly eroding our industrial relations system. It is a government that is committed to WorkChoices; it is a government that is surreptitiously undermining workers' pay, conditions and entitlements. This legislation does just that: it undermines workers' entitlements.

Those on the other side of this parliament may one day find themselves in a situation where they need to look to this legislation to provide them with protection. They may be in a situation where they have a young family that really needs some certainty about income. They may be in a situation where they need training to be able to find new employment. Or they may have a family member—a child—in the future who finds themselves in this situation. And if there is inadequate protection there and inadequate financial support then it increases the burden twofold.

As I said, we have been very proud of our $852 million unpaid entitlements scheme that we introduced and which benefited 70,000 workers. The government's plan to cut this scheme will have a greater effect on older workers. On one hand, this government has introduced legislation to increase the age of working people before they are entitled to receive a pension. Then, on the other hand, it is putting in place legislation like this that will disproportionately affect older workers. The proposed changes are at odds with the government's other policy. The government cannot argue one thing in relation to one piece of legislation and then another thing in relation to this legislation that we have before us today. It is one thing and one thing only: it is an ideological assault on workers and their families. It is unfair, it is unjust, it is inequitable and it is unconscionable. It cannot be supported by this parliament.

It is certainly something that I will not be voting for and I know that members on this side of the parliament know just how unfair it is and how hard it is—how difficult it is—for older Australians to get back into the workforce. It is particularly difficult in areas such as manufacturing, automotive—well automotive is going to be non-existent very soon thanks to the actions of this government—textiles, and timber and wood product industries. The actions of this side of parliament show we are absolutely focused on assisting people to obtain employment; we are committed to finding ways to help people, not to drag them down as this legislation does.

This is legislation that really demonstrates that the government has absolutely no commitment to Australian workers. Instead of admonishing hard-working Australians, the Abbott government should be getting on with articulating its job plan. As I have already highlighted, a job plan is non-existent when it comes to the Abbott government. It is a government of rhetoric, it is a government of blame, it is a government of abrogating its responsibility, it is a government of broken promises, it is a government that is still acting as if it is in opposition as opposed to a government that is governing for all of Australia and developing policies that will show leadership and prepare Australia for this 21st century. The simple fact that our unemployment rate is going up, as I have already mentioned, can be attributed to the fact that this government has no vision for Australia, no jobs plan.

This legislation is unfair. This legislation promotes something that is totally different to what the government was saying, in opposition, before the election. This legislation is proof that the Abbott government is hell-bent on duping the Australian people. It is a government that distorts information; it is a government that is unfair; it is a government that has introduced this Fair Entitlements Guarantee Amendment Bill 2014, which will penalise Australian workers; and it is a government that has absolutely no vision and sets up a scenario that gives those people, those workers who lose their jobs under a company going into liquidation, absolutely no hope for the future.

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