Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Working Holiday Maker Employer Register) Bill 2017, and I'll say from the start that Labor opposes this bill. Whilst I acknowledge the contribution of the member for Hinkler and the personal interaction that we've had on this particular topic—I've got a big toe in his community and I work in his community. I acknowledge that, on a personal basis, we have worked well on this. But I don't think we'll ever celebrate governments cracking down on people who are breaking the law. That's like giving people a pat on the back for breathing. Governments should always punish people who break the law.

This bill before the parliament essentially introduces changes to the backpacker tax from the package that passed parliament back in 2016. I think it's important to view this next instalment in the context of the entire backpacker tax fiasco, which sounds like a holiday novel. Sadly, it's something presided over by the Turnbull government, and it's been a disaster from the beginning, with the backpacker tax first appearing in 2015, announced by the then-Abbott government in the 2015 budget. Since then, the government's got a new leader but old ideas. It's still cuts, cuts and more cuts—cuts to education for every kid, totalling $17 billion, right across Australia, including $15 million from schools in Moreton; cuts to higher education and universities, such as $92 million from Griffith University, of which the Nathan campus is in my electorate, and TAFE, include $270 million in additional cuts announced last night; cuts to hospitals, including over $3 million from QEII, which is in Moreton; and cuts to Medicare totalling $2.2 billion. Thanks to the freezing of the Medicare rebate, everyone will be paying more to see a GP at a time when wages are stagnant. There are also proposed cuts to Queensland's share of GST funding, potentially ripping $1.5 billion from the state's economy, and the proposed cutting of the energy supplement, taking $375 every year out of the pockets of pensioners.

In the 2015 budget announcement, the then Abbott government proposed a 32.5 per cent tax on backpackers. There was failed negotiation after failed negotiation, and, on the last sitting day of 2016, it was jammed through in a secret deal with the Greens political party. Yes—the coalition doing a deal with the Greens political party! The shadow Treasurer, the member for McMahon, described it as a special mix of arrogance and incompetence from the government of the day. Labor, responsibly, had offered the government many different compromises to stop the outrageous 32.5 per cent slug on the industry, which would obviously be passed on. We offered 10.5 per cent or even, in the spirit of compromise, 13 per cent.

What did the Treasurer say? 'Oh, no, they'd both be far too expensive.' What did Treasurer Morrison do? It's quite astounding. He did a deal with the Greens political party to water down superannuation measures and to spend $100 million extra on Landcare. I love Landcare; it does great work; I understand that. But this deal, the Morrison deal, ended up costing the budget more money than doing a deal on 13 per cent would have or doing a deal on 10 per cent would have. It takes that special mixture of arrogance and incompetence to get a deal that has a higher tax rate while making less money for the budget bottom line.

This is a budget that used to be at emergency levels of debt. Do you remember that, Deputy Speaker? Remember that old debt-and-deficit truck? Remember the pictures of Mr Turnbull out in front of the debt-and-deficit truck? Where is that truck? Is it locked in a bunker somewhere, its diesel engine ticking over, chugging away, collecting parking fines in a parking lot somewhere—fines that my grandchildren's children will have to pay off? No.

Anyway, back to the backpacker tax: this hapless coalition government managed to negotiate a deal that was worse for taxpayers, worse for farmers and worse for the tourism sector, a trifecta of trip-ups. So what is there left to do—make it worse for the workers too? It's an idea that this coalition government is never too afraid to tackle: making life worse for workers, making life worse for ordinary Australians. When it comes to properly funding education, when it comes to funding health or infrastructure, it goes missing. But, when it comes to bashing workers, it turns up in droves. We've seen negotiation after negotiation, and this floundering Turnbull government yet again wants to remove an avenue for the protection of workers and something that provides greater transparency.

The coalition are seeking to deny working holiday-makers something they promised: a public register that allows visa holders to review who is registered for the program. This register ensures, before they apply for work, that they are paid appropriately. It ensures that they can have greater protections, given the cases of abuse and exploitation in this area. As I mentioned at the start of my speech, I have a particular interest because I have in my electorate a significant Taiwanese community and Korean community, and many of their friends or relatives come and work on Australian farms. Because of that, I went for a visit to Bundaberg and the Lockyer Valley with representatives from the Taiwanese community to find out how people were being treated. I'll come back to that in a little while.

The backpacker tax package that passed parliament in 2016 allowed visa holders to check the public register to see if a business was registered for employing working holiday-makers. This amendment, outlined in this bill, is part of a deal that secured Senator Leyonhjelm's support for the original package—yet another deal from this government, which is willing to sell out to anyone for almost any price to get something through the Senate. It needs to read some negotiating books.

There absolutely needs to be a better process for ensuring that greater protections and information are in place for working holiday-makers. Why? It is not just because it's the right thing to do. That's a pretty good start. But we need to do it because these backpackers become our de facto ambassadors forever. If they have a horrible experience here in Australia, they will tell the world. They will tell their home. They will tell everyone that they meet what happened to them in Australia. That's why we need backpackers to do something productive, get paid and have a good time but also be great ambassadors for us.

This bill removes these protections. It removes the ability of backpackers to check the register and leaves them in the dark again. Unsurprisingly, the Turnbull government is prioritising—guess what?—big business over workers. So now the coalition is revisiting the dark days of the backpacker tax fiasco. This hillbilly-harbourside alliance is back in town.

See this speech in context