Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thought that Labor or Liberal might rise to talk and say, 'No; it's okay; we don't need these amendments because we've got these great side letters that we've just exchanged. So don't you worry about that; it'll all be fine.' The fact that neither of them are prepared to get up and defend these agreements and rebut the points that I'm making tells you everything that you need to know—that they know that the points I am making are true. They know that, in these agreements, you will be able to bypass Australian labour law.

We were here on this issue with ChAFTA, the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, where we tried to get some protections to stop the circumventing of Australian labour law. And what happened? Well, Labor sold out the electricians on that one. With that agreement, we ended up with classes of workers, contractual service suppliers and other independent contract people who were able to come in and bypass the existing labour laws and any other agreements that might have been put around the side to give the fiction that there was going to be some proper labour market testing—and we have seen it come to pass. Now, we are back here again with the same provisions about introducing whole new swathes of workers that allow you to bypass Australian labour law—and they can't even be bothered to get up and say, 'No, it's all right; we fixed that this time,' because they know that they haven't.

That is why so many working people and their representatives have worked so hard to get a change of position from at least one of the parties in this place and for them to say, 'We've got to start saying no to these labour market testing provisions and to allowing Australian labour law to be circumvented. We've got to start putting in a hard floor in this country so that, no matter where you come from, you get Australian wages and conditions when you work here, and that involves some rigorous labour marketing testing and rigorous checking to make sure that there aren't some locals who can do the job first.'

We've been debating this for many, many years—and we've certainly been debating it since the China free trade agreement. I note that one contributor from the opposition said that someone will come in here and start trying to make some cheap political points. Well, no, we have been raising this year after year because there is a problem, and you know there is a problem! You don't even have the courage to get up and speak to these amendments, because you know that you are about to vote to create huge loopholes that will allow plane-loads of exploited overseas workers to fly through. That will be bad for them and it will be bad for local wages and conditions as well. You know it!

This government has a one-seat majority and if we worked together and took the fight up to this government, come the next by-election they could be out on their ear—and there will be a by-election during this parliament, because there always is. But if Labor keeps going over to the government and saying, 'Oh, yep, we'll side with you on that,' every time the government wants tax cuts for the rich, and says 'Yep, we'll vote with you for that, like we did last week,' every time the government wants to rip $4 billion out of education, then you are just giving this government kudos it doesn't deserve. You are facilitating their agenda, Labor! We should be standing up to them and presenting an alternative, rather than doing exactly what they want. I accept that maybe Labor wants to vote with the Liberals to give tax cuts to the rich, instead of voting with the Greens, and maybe Labor wants to vote with the Liberals to rip $4 billion out of education, instead of voting with the Greens, but I would have thought Labor might vote with us to protect workers' rights. But it is left to the Greens and the crossbench to say, 'Let's address these problems.' Do you know why? It is because we are not on the payroll of the big corporations, but Labor and the Liberals are. Every time the big corporations say that they want the right to do whatever they like to undermine your hard-won and hard-fought-for local labour laws that have taken you over a century to build up, Liberal and Labor ask, 'How high do you want us to jump? How much do you want us to trade off?'

If there were any time to stand up to the government, it is now. I am deeply sorry that there wasn't a change of government at the last election. There wasn't, but now we have the chance to do something about it by standing up and presenting an alternative. So, I say to Labor: Look at it. You are the opposition—the clue is in the title. (Time expired)

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