Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Hughes, the previous speaker, failed to actually speak to what is in this motion. It speaks quite specifically about what is going on in the poultry food-processing industry here in Australia. It talks about the work that the Fair Work Ombudsman has done to expose the abuse and exploitation of people who are here on temporary work visas, whether it be the 417 visa or the 457 visa, working for Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd. Unfortunately, what happened at Baiada is not a stand-alone case within the poultry industry. This particular case exposes the failure of this business and other businesses in the poultry industry to clean up their act.

The government must act—it must step in and get this company and other companies to start treating their workers properly—and implement the recommendations that the Fair Work Ombudsman has made. There are quite serious issues that the Fair Work Ombudsman has exposed in this particular case. Not only did it find that the company was refusing to pay people properly but it also exposed the hideous nature of the sham contracting arrangements, where one company subcontracts to another company that subcontracts to another company that then may employ people specifically. This issue that we have before us today demonstrates quite clearly that we have a problem within the temporary work visa program, whether it be at Baiada or 7-Eleven.

We are now hearing reports of problems with the temporary visa program. People who come here and work, whether they be international students, 457 visa holders or 417 visa holders, must be ensured that there are safeguards to protect their rights at work. We have seen time and time again problems in this system, yet the government is failing to implement the recommendations being made by the Fair Work Ombudsman to ensure these temporary work visa holders do, in fact, have Australian wages and conditions. This government has weakened the safeguards that were in place, by what they call streamlining, or removed, through their red tape repeal days, some of the safeguards that were in place to ensure that these workers had proper protection.

To unpack what is going on in Australian workplaces is complex, I acknowledge that, but it is up to the government to ensure the recommendations that have been put forward by the Fair Work Ombudsman are being adopted by the companies that they recommended do so. In my previous role I did quite a bit of work with international students. When they first come to Australia international students do not know what their rights are in regard to work. They can take on positions. And it is not until they meet a union official or they meet a union member or they meet someone—an Australian worker—who says, 'Hey, what are you getting paid? What is actually going on?' do they then learn the truth of how much they are being underpaid. And that is exactly what happened with the 7-Eleven situation that we are talking about today. 7-Eleven, Baiada, what we find is it is not until people are aware of their rights that they then raise the issues that are now being investigated by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Within this country, we need to ensure that we have proper safeguards in place. We need to ensure that whether you are here as a guest temporary worker or you an Australian citizen worker that you have the same workplace wages and conditions. But what we see time and time again through the work of the Fair Work Ombudsman is that there are a number of people working here in this country that do not have access to those rights. We need to ensure that this government gets serious about ensuring that people working here have the same rights and conditions. Further, whether it be at Baiada, which was one of the issues exposed, whether it be at 7-Eleven, whether it be at KR Castlemaine, which is in my electorate, that those positions are being offered to locals first. We know that Australians will not accept half pay. We know that Australians will not accept being exploited in this way. They also do not expect people who are here guest workers being exploited in this way. I support this motion and call on all of those in this House to support this motion.

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