Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

But I find it rather galling that, while many Queensland Nickel workers—I join with the member for Herbert and I would back, 100 per cent, everything she would be able to tell us about those workers in Townsville—still haven't had their entitlements paid out, Mr Palmer is throwing huge buckets of cash at advertising companies to get his face above every road in Australia. If you put on the radio, all you hear is Clive Palmer. If I put on Sky TV in my office, all I hear is Clive Palmer. Well, I'll tell you what: what we want to hear is these workers in Herbert who haven't had their entitlements.

I support this bill. Don't get me wrong; I support this bill. As a member of the party that has always stood up for working people, for bringing fairness into the industrial relations system, I will always support legislation that brings the system a little bit closer to an even playing field, which can quite often just seem like a fanciful pipedream.

The LNP have never fought for working people. It's not in their DNA. They don't even know how. I'm going to be honest: they don't know how. They're more into cutting workers' rights. At the moment, after months of turmoil, they are dysfunctional. They are divided. But there's one thing that does unite them, and that's attacking workers' rights. Under this government, wages have remained stagnant. You can't argue about that. Underemployment is shockingly high. The exploitation of workers is all too common, and work is increasingly insecure.

I'll tell you what: you don't have to go very far in my electorate to hear these stories. Go on a Tuesday night or a Saturday to Caboolture Community Action. Go and hear the stories there about the people and about underemployment. They're turning up there for a meal. No, they're not unemployed; they're underemployed. There's enough money to pay the rent and put a bit of fuel in the car, but that's it. They're underemployed.

This is what's happening under this government. Great community groups like Caboolture Community Action are picking up the pieces where this government is letting people down. It is letting them down. When you cut their take-home pay, when you force them into insecure work, when they can't get the hours that they need to raise their families, this is what happens.

Nonetheless, these reforms are a step in the right direction. They certainly aren't all that is needed, of course. We know there's only one way to get every reform that working people in this country need, and that is: we need a Labor government.

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