Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

No, I am not. It cuts the entitlement from the community standard of four weeks per year of service to a maximum of 16 weeks. This is consistent with the national employment standards. Those opposite do not understand that the national employment standards are a legislated minimum. You cannot go below it in Australia. It is what is considered enough to ensure people stay out of poverty in this country and it is enshrined in the Fair Work legislation. But the community standard is well above that and Labor, when in government, sought to cement that community standard.

Going back to the greenkeeper with 18 years service—he had served his apprenticeship—what would he receive under the coalition scheme? Sixteen weeks—less than one week for each year of service. That is what those opposite are voting for. That is what the Abbott government is implementing here—something that is well below the community standard. They are voting to cut a worker's entitlement to a fair payment in case of bankruptcy. It is generally the most vulnerable we are talking about here. It is generally those employees who are not unionised; they are not covered by a union enterprise agreement which sets a community standard. They are the most vulnerable people when a company is liquidated or going bankrupt, and they need support. Generally, there are circumstances where they are not only owed accrued entitlements but also wages. They may not have been paid for the last month and certainly, in many circumstances I have uncovered, they have not been paid superannuation for some months. What support are they going to get from the government? Sixteen weeks payment as a maximum. That is simply unacceptable; it is unfair. The galling thing about this is that, again, it was not mentioned before the election. There was no indication from the Abbott government prior to the election or during the election campaign—when industrial relations and workplace relations were quite topical issues—that they were going to make changes to workers' pay and conditions that affected the minimum entitlement of workers in the circumstances of bankruptcy or liquidation of the company. Again, as previous Labor speakers have mentioned, unfortunately this comes about as a result of the Commission of Audit and the recommendations of the Commission of Audit, which have been found to be grossly unfair and unfortunately form the basis of much of this government's very unpopular budget initiatives.

So that is where this comes from. It was not an election commitment. It was not disclosed to Australian employees, particularly to those vulnerable employees throughout the country, prior to the election campaign. That is why it must be opposed by this House. It is unfair in the way it works. It reduces what are fair entitlements to employees who are vulnerable in circumstances where companies go bankrupt, where companies are trading in circumstances where they are not liquid, where companies are trading in circumstances in breach of Corporations Law, and where the creditors—generally the banks—rank before employees. In those circumstances many employees are left with nothing. They rely on government. They rely on us in this place to offer them a scheme that is fair and reasonable. That was the basis of Labor's reforms in 2012. Over $852,000 in unpaid entitlements to more than 70,000 employees around the country were made under this scheme. That was a fair scheme that was in accordance with community standards. It is now being cut by this government.

Again, I go back to the example that I made earlier: what right do we have to tell the workers of this country, employees in vulnerable situations—many of them women—that they should have their entitlement to fair payments in cases of bankruptcy and liquidation of companies cut back to a maximum of 16 weeks, when we are going to continue in this place to receive the entitlements that we get if we are made redundant, which by community standards are probably quite generous. I will not be part of that, nor should anyone in this place. That is why this bill should not pass.

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