Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I'm very proud to rise in support of the amendment moved to the Fair Work Laws Amendment (Proper Use of Worker Benefits) Bill 2017 by Brendan O'Connor, the shadow minister for employment and workplace relations. We cannot tackle inequality or build a better future unless Australia has a workplace relations system that is productive and fair. I emphasise 'fair'.

I am proud of my union membership. I belong to the oldest union in this country. A nefarious ideology, writ large when it comes to reducing union power, is to be shouted down at every opportunity. There has been an abuse of power, the use of regulatory bodies for political gain and a bid to stifle legitimate organisations and their right to act and protect their members. As the member for Fowler just indicated, their interests have been trampled on and stifled, and they have been bullied. This lot on the other side hate unions because they stand up for normal, everyday, hardworking Australians who weren't born with silver spoons in their mouths and who don't pay for private education or private health insurance—everyday working Australian people going about their daily business and trying to earn a living. It is absolutely deplorable that those on the other side seek to reduce the union membership in this country, which protects workers.

Such are the actions of this government, and they include the introduction of this bill last Thursday in an attempt to rush its passage through the parliament. This sets almost impossible time lines for stakeholders to prepare submissions and present evidence. It begs the question: what have the government got to hide and why are they in such a hurry? Where is the proper scrutiny and due process for consideration and consultation on this bill? This is yet another attack by the government on unions. These attacks are relentless. Once again, they are attacking Australian workers and their entitlements. The outcome of this proposed change will limit legitimate activities of unions. Those on the other side of the House attempt to gain, again and again.

Further, the outcome of the proposed changes will limit legitimate sources of income for unions. The Liberals have always been anti worker. The member for Fowler just spoke about the 'Your Rights at Work' campaign. I wasn't around for that—I think I was still in high school—but I am often reminded, out on the streets, when I talk to our union members and our Labor Party members, of how hard won that campaign was. We thought we saw that off, but all we've seen since is Liberal government after Liberal government attacking workers. They are happy to put their hands up for the big end of town, be a massive cheer squad for them and give them a handout, rather than give everyday Australian workers a fair go.

Living standards are what makes this country great—make no mistake. Now they are under significant attack. The government wants to attack workers and their entitlements by making cuts to penalty rates, cuts to holiday pay and cuts to working rights. For the life of me, I cannot understand why low-paid workers are always in the firing line when it comes to this cruel Liberal government. This is how out of touch they are with the lives of middle- and working-class people, the people I represent: the Prime Minister gives millionaires a $16,400 tax cut and gives a $65 billion tax break to big business, yet inequality is at a 75-year high. We wonder why. Actually, we on this side don't wonder why; we know exactly why. We look at it every single day that we are here.

For the benefit of people on the other side, inequality is not peeking over the back fence, looking at jet skis and realising you don't have one. There is stagnant wages growth, and 'wages growth' is an oxymoron when we haven't had any. I'd like to see 'wages non-growth' adopted as your three-word slogan at the next election, perhaps. They want to further undermine workers and their unions, and they have already cut the take-home pay of people across this country. Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks, these workers are people who I represent and, I dare say, people who those on the other side, including you, probably have the opportunity to represent in this place. Considering wages in this country have been stagnant ever since this government was elected, its decision is a kick in the guts to working people who are already struggling to get by. Pay and conditions are not supposed to stagnate or go backwards. We see productivity going up and up and up, and wages just flatlining.

The Prime Minister's press release claims that, through cosy deals with big business, unions have become a big business in their own right and are more focused on making profits than representing people. I don't know about him, but he obviously hasn't attended any union functions lately or he'd know that we are not big business and that the unions do not represent or look anything like a big business. They represent hardworking people and are out defending working rights every single day, not turning it up at silver-spoon lunches and ritzy dinners. After the Federal Court's decision on cutting penalty rates, the minister said:

… Federal Court decision once again highlights the hypocrisy of the Labor Party and the unions.

It is beyond comprehension! We keep hearing about workers being ripped off—7-Eleven and Domino's Pizza. Over the 12 months from June 2015 to July 2016, the Fair Work Ombudsman recovered more than $27 million owed to 11,000 workers for almost 30,000 allegations of Fair Work Act breaches. Who do you think stood up for those people? It wasn't the big end of town that this government seeks to give tax cuts to. It wasn't those people who got a handout and tax relief of $16,400. The union movement was standing up for those people. The astronomical numbers represent only those instances of underpayment and exploitation of workers that were reported to the ombudsman. We hear anecdotally on the street every day about such instances, and my office has certainly been regularly contacted by people who make such claims. We need to stand up for working people and their communities. We need to listen to business concerns, of course, and we need to stand up for a fairer, more equitable, inclusive and prosperous Australia.

Just how out of touch can this government get? The retail trade industry is the second-largest employment category in Australia. It employs 1.2 million people, or one in nine Australians, and 52 per cent of those workers have no post-school qualification. When it comes to my electorate of Lindsay, that equates to over 12,000 people. It is the second-highest employer in my community. The penalty rate cuts are just another milestone in this government's cruel attempts to hurt workers. Labor will never support undermining workers' rights and avoiding workers' entitlements. In fact, we will do the opposite. We will always stand up and fight for them. People need penalty rates to make ends meet. For many people every cent counts, but, if you've never been affected by it, that might be hard to understand. The government has effectively delivered a $77-a-week pay cut to all of those people. For the government, this has been a business decision, but, for the people in my electorate, this is personal. Worker entitlement funds provide for employee long service leave, sick leave and redundancy payments. They provide important services for workers, such as counselling, which we as members of this House also have access to; training; and safe workplaces. All people want is what is fair.

What is even more worrying is that women will bear the brunt of these devastating cuts. We often hear Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister, refer to his lovely wife, Lucy, in terms of 'women hold up half the sky'. I would just like that 'half' to include equal pay for women in this country, not the absolutely shocking wage gap that exists now and the even greater gap that this decision makes. Women are most likely to be working on weekends and covering public holiday shifts. This is not through choice. It is not like they put their hand up and say, 'I'm happy to go to work on a Sunday, miss my kid's birthday, miss the family lunch, miss the family picnic, miss the opportunity to catch up with my kids who are at school during the week.' They do those shifts on the weekend because their families and their lives dictate that it is the only time when they can have the help and support that they need for their children, because, as we all know, child care is out of the reach of many people in this country. Cutting the pay of workers in industries such as retail and hospitality is the worst thing this government can do to worsen the gender pay gap. We know that, when local workers have less money in their pockets to spend, it actually hurts the local economies as well.

When I was at university I had four part-time jobs, two of which paid me penalty rates. I was the first of my generation in my family to go to university. I relied on every single cent from those four part-time jobs—which were all insecure, casual work—to run my car, pay my bills, pay my rent and buy my textbooks. Many people do more than four jobs; many people do more than one job. Without those penalty rates and those extra payments for those unsociable hours that I had to work just to get by, I wouldn't have been able to achieve what I did. From my story, I think it is absolutely important and vital to protect and stand up for people who are relying on those penalty rates every single day.

This government cannot deliver. The proof of the pudding is in the eating—their track record on the NBN; the issues with the Yarra III that we had; the citizenship debacle that we're now waiting on the results of; the robo-debt with Centrelink; the Bureau of Statistics bungle last year in trying to get our census together, which I had almost forgotten to mention; the energy crisis that we've had no movement on for five years; and their failing to do anything at all about alleviating the cost of housing and the unaffordability for so many Australians. Now they're cutting penalty rates. They've just wasted $122 million on a postal poll on equality and people's rights. If this were a report card, this government would be getting a F for fat failure.

Yet now, again, they are coming after the lowest-paid workers. The Turnbull government has no idea about how hard things are for people. From Point Piper over to Penrith is a big distance. I know the Prime Minister knows how to get there during an election campaign by train, but I haven't seen him since. I haven't seen him turn up on the doorsteps of those workers who he seeks to cut money from to say how much he supports and loves Western Sydney, which is a shame. Point Piper is not actually that far in distance, although some people do think they need their passport to come out to visit us, but it is a world away from the different standards of living that those people he represents enjoy compared with the people that I represent.

All this government is focused on is looking after the rich end of town and trusting that it will trickle down. Well, it doesn't. It absolutely doesn't. Trickle-down economics has been myth-busted and fact-checked, and all the experts and economists around the world have said, 'This does not work.' So why are we in here with a government so obsessed with trickle-down economics? We know that more must be done to reduce the gender pay gap, to make industrial relations more user friendly for small businesses, to make the Fair Work Commission easier to access, to create jobs pathways for people with disabilities or people who are marginalised, to tackle discrimination against older workers so they stay in the work force, and to help younger people.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:47 to 11:59

Cutting the pay of workers in any industry is the worst thing this government could do to the gender pay gap. The government cannot deliver, and so much proof is already in the pudding—their track record on the NBN, the citizenship debacle, robo-debt, and the energy crisis they are failing to do anything about after five years in power. They are also failing to do anything about housing affordability. And there was the recent $122 million waste of taxpayers' money on a survey. If the government had a report card, they would fail. Now we are seeing them come after the lowest paid workers.

We need to be doing more to help younger people enter work in the first place. We need to be doing more to reduce the gender pay gap. We need to be doing more to make industrial relations more user-friendly for small business and make the Fair Work Commission much easier to access. We need to create jobs pathways for people with a disability and those people who might be marginalised, and we need to tackle discrimination of older workers so they stay in the workforce for much longer and continue their contributions. We need to create a future for work, not continue to cut away at workers' rights.

This government isn't focused on helping workers at all. They are too busy saving their own jobs. We saw that at the last election, with the Prime Minister pouring in millions of his own money to protect his own job. The government are desperately trying to distract the public from the fact they have no agenda to address wage stagnation, underemployment, rising inequality or anything else, for that matter. They are failing the average Australian every single day they come into this place. The government are not meeting the challenges of low wages growth, rising inequality and job insecurity.

It is completely unsurprising, then, that, under this government, wages are falling in real terms while cost-of-living pressures are rising and workers are struggling to make ends meet. In my own electorate of Lindsay, we have a three per cent higher cost of living than those people Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister of this country, represents in his electorate of Wentworth. According to the latest data, wages growth in enterprise agreements approved in the quarter fell to 2.6 per cent from 2.7 per cent, a 26-year low. This government has refused to stand up for working people time and time again, despite the many opportunities it's been given. It could not be bothered to lift a finger to assist our lowest paid workers.

Over the last 10 years, real labour productivity grew by 20 per cent and real wages growth grew only six per cent. Wages share of GDP is well below the average of the last 50 years. This country deserves better than a government which puts corporate profits above people's wellbeing. They are arrogant and out of touch. They would rather hand tax cuts to big business than stand up for working people and their hard-won and well-earned pay and conditions. We are very, very concerned that the Turnbull government are incapable, unable and unwilling to address consistently flat wages growth. In fact, they are making things worse by cutting the penalty rates of Australia's lowest paid workers. My constituents are concerned because penalty rates make a real difference to how they live. They ensure that those families who earn them can afford the extra things they pay for out of those penalty rates. They now face pay cuts as a result of this government. They were worried about how they were going to afford fuel to get to work. This means cutting back on their already tight spending habits. I know how tough some working people in my community in my electorate of Lindsay have had it. They've had a gutful of this government's bad decisions.

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