Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

For the benefit of the member who's just spoken, it's not just one case study of underemployment in our country that we're talking about. It is 1.9 million workers who are underemployed in our country on this government's watch. They are the statistics that were released last week, but that's not what the government is talking about. Underemployment in this country is causing a massive problem. Uber doesn't count as a decent, secure job. The gig economy doesn't count as a decent, secure job. The hidden truth in the unemployment numbers that this government is touting as being a great economic achievement is the fact that people are underemployed. Those opposite have taken full-time jobs, on their watch, and created hundreds of insecure, casual, part-time jobs. The fact that workers in our country have to work two or three jobs to try and make ends meet is a disgrace; it is an indictment on this government. That is their economic record. That is their record on how Australian workers are being treated on their watch.

It's not just the underemployment problem that we have as a result of this government's failure to address these key economic problems. It's also stagnant wages. Stagnant wages are a real problem in our economy. Wages are not increasing. CEO wages are increasing, but not the wages of the hardworking people, particularly people who are on the lowest of incomes. Those opposite have not done anything about the migrant worker exploitation, which is also causing problems in our economy. They turn a blind eye to what is going on there. Their heads are down; they don't want to engage. They're just not interested in addressing the chronic problem that we have with wage stagnation.

When they talk about industrial relations—and it does fear me that this government is talking about industrial relations—they want the market to be more flexible. They want workplaces to be more flexible. They're pretty flexible right now, when the majority of Australian workers are casual and stuck on the minimum wage, with no pathway out. A clear example of that is that those opposite boast about the fact that the gap between men's and women's wages is closing. It's only because men's wages are plummeting. That's not something to celebrate. The fact that women continue to be low paid and now men are becoming low paid is not a great economic outcome. That is their record.

Also under this government, as a result of its failure to deliver an economy that is fair, household income standards are declining. People are going backwards. That is how those opposite are failing to deliver for Australians. They might be delivering for CEOs, they might be delivering for the one per cent, but they are not delivering for households. Since the government came to power, real household median income is lower than it was when Labor was last in government. On this government's watch, wages are rising at one-sixth the pace of profits. When you remove the people at the very top, they are stagnating and they are crashing. People are losing good, secure jobs to insecure part-time jobs—the scourge of labour hire. If you really want to talk about what's crushing productivity, it's the fact that flexibility in the workplace has gone too far. When workers no longer have full-time jobs where they feel secure, they are not productive.

Take a look at agriculture. Talk to anybody who is coming up to the fruit picking season, and they will tell you that every single day they have at least 20 to 30 backpackers they are training. How is that good for productivity if you're churning through the training costs day in, day out? And it's not just in agriculture. It is in the mining sector. If a worker is not secure in their job, they don't speak up about worker safety. They don't speak up about what's happening in the workplace. They worry about having a job the next day. They are not their most productive. Because of the flexibility in the labour market, productivity is crashing. More and more employers are spending more on training costs than what they could be spending on securing jobs.

This is this government's record. It's nothing to be proud of. They are presiding over this economy. The stats from last week alone are something they should be ashamed of—one in six children live in poverty, 1.9 million people are underemployed in our economy, one in four women skip meals because they need to feed their children. It is a disgrace. (Time expired)

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