Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll make a brief contribution. I, of course, acknowledge my good friend the member for Moreton for giving me the opportunity to jump the queue. I'm taking that opportunity for a couple of reasons. The first is that those opposite seem to have a bit of a memory of convenience around this issue. I've sat through about 60 minutes of this debate now, and the way that it's been put is that action has been taken by people like the AWU. It wasn't the Australian Workers' Union. It's been put that action has been taken by people like the now CFMMEU. It wasn't them. It might have been United Voice. I can tell you that it wasn't United Voice. It wasn't any of those organisations. The crackdown on the exploitation of foreign workers in this country commenced with my colleagues on this side of the House.

As one of the speakers said in recent contributions, there have been any number of reports into this issue. There have been Senate reports after Senate reports, inquiries and standing committees right back to the late 1990s, when it was raised by the former member of this House Philip Ruddock. But what I can tell you is that some of my colleagues, including the now Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the now Deputy Prime Minister, Mr McCormack, and my good friend and colleague in the other place Senator Barry O'Sullivan, kicked this off with industry, calling for direct action and, in particular, a multijurisdictional task force to crack down on exploitation of foreign workers in this country. That is precisely what happened.

We worked our way through this with industry. We consulted with them as to what they needed. What they didn't need was more red tape. What they didn't want was more people affecting how they work and what their operations are each and every day—delivering jobs and, of course, building the economy in this country. So the multijurisdictional task force we called for at the federal Nationals conference some years ago, with unanimous support, was delivered by this government. Taskforce Cadena has been a real success in cracking down on foreign worker exploitation in this country. If you wanted to look at one case in particular, it would be that of one Mr Emmanuel Bani and the people from Vanuatu who he exploited, who he left on the side of the road, who ended up in my office, who hadn't been paid for months, who were disregarded and left without their passports. The absolute outcome of that is Mr Bani has found himself in court. He has been prosecuted successfully, as he should have been. But it is this side of the House that is cracking down on foreign worker exploitation.

In fact, I will give a shout-out and, certainly, a call-out to Keith Ballin, the representative of the AWU in Bundaberg for many, many years, who did come to see me after we took action on this issue. I'll acknowledge that he put out his hand and said: 'We will help you on this issue. Come to us again.' I certainly acknowledge that that was a very gracious and generous offer. But it was the people on this side of the House who took action, and I think we should acknowledge the people who were willing to put themselves out in front of the media. The member for Blair's contribution was almost accurate. It wasn't 7.30; it was ABC's Four Corners. The reason I remember it so very clearly is that I was on it, talking about the exploitation of foreign workers and what needed to happen. We had all heard the horror stories around those situations, and they were unacceptable.

What have we done? We introduced Taskforce Cadena, a multi-jurisdictional crackdown task force, which has been successful. I acknowledge the member for Gippsland—Taskforce Cadena has been active in Gippsland, in the Riverina and in areas right across this country. We added on an additional $20 million to the Fair Work Ombudsman so they could do their work. There is still work to do; I absolutely acknowledge that. One of the things that stood out for me in the budget last night was the change to cash payments—no more than $10,000 will be allowed in future. That will address two critical things: the accumulation of cash and phoenixing. If you can't pay for substantial components, equipment and machinery with cash in this country, that will eliminate a lot of the problems we have, particularly in horticulture.

I also acknowledge another contribution, which stated that this is just a few bad seeds, that it is not reflective of the horticulture industry in this country. The majority of our growers are out there doing the right thing, working very hard for this country. They take a lot of risk. They employ a lot of people. But we do need to ensure that they are able to act on a level playing field, and that is what we are doing as a government. This bill continues that good work, and I commend the bill to the House. But it should be acknowledged by those opposite that it was this side that took action on cracking down on foreign worker exploitation in this country.

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