Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I'll be brief in my remarks to make sure that we have the division commence before 10 o'clock. What's in front of us now is a scheme that both sides of politics voted for in the House of Representatives. So, when we hear those opposite saying—as I can predict they will in a minute—that somehow this is about whether or not the program happens: in the House of Reps, both sides have already voted for the program to occur. In the Senate, after these amendments went through, both sides of politics, including the government, voted for the bill in its amended form—so the government's already voted for the bill, including these amendments, in the Senate. They've already done that. Today, the only question in front of us is whether or not the amendments should be part of the bill. That is the only question in front of us, and it will be the only question in front of the Senate as well.

And what do those amendments mean? Here's what they mean for workers—and who are these workers? A lot of them are people with families. They're all people who've been ineligible for JobKeeper. If you're a worker, maybe in your late 30s, early 40s, and you've made it all the way through the pandemic without a wage subsidy—you've turned up for work during the pandemic without any additional support from the government—now the government is changing the rules so that other workers will be cheaper than you. All we're saying is those workers shouldn't have their hours cut or lose their jobs as a result. And the government are wanting to argue, 'No, you need to keep that flexibility in the act.' This has a real impact on working families, on older workers, as we head into Christmas.

The government right now is making a deliberate decision to keep a loophole in the act to take away job security as we head into Christmas. The government is making a deliberate decision by how they are about to vote to make sure that, as we head into Christmas, workers who have had no support during this pandemic and have simply turned up for work every day are going to be allowed to face either losing their job altogether or having their hours cut, because other workers are cheaper. If you believe that loophole should be there, if you believe that job security should be lost, then vote with the government when the bells ring. But if you believe that those workers who have made it all the way through this pandemic should not have their job security put at risk, then you need to vote no.

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