Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Youth and Employment Services) Share this | Hansard source

I say to the member opposite: when we're talking about employment one of the benefits of having been a small business owner is that it gives you a good understanding of what those employers want. I'm confident that we know what the problems are. By listening to Australians, not just in my electorate but in all of our electorates, it gives us a much better understanding of what Australians want.

The government's IR reform, as the Attorney-General outlined today, does address a lot of the issues that we're seeing in our economy right now and in the industrial relations system that the Labor government put in through the Fair Work Act. The reforms will not only support wages growth and help to regrow jobs lost in the pandemic but tackle the broader issues like underemployment, job security and underpayment of wages. I want on the record that these are the things that those opposite say that they care about but won't even vote to support in this legislation. We'll remind the Australian people. The Leader of the Opposition says, 'Leading into the next election we'll put forward our platform.' We'll remind the Australian people what the opposition are doing—not supporting job security and not dealing with underemployment and the underpayment of wages. These are things that the opposition say they care about. Labor's enterprise bargaining system has failed to drive wages and productivity growth.

We had hoped that in 2021 we would see the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party adopt a more mature approach to industrial relations, but, by opposing the government's IR reform bill, Labor are against stamping out wage theft. They're against it. They're going to vote against it. They're against supporting vulnerable workers getting their money back quickly when underpayment occurs. They are against a quicker enterprise agreement approval process to help deliver pay rises more quickly. This is important stuff. This is what I and the Minister for Education and Youth, who is here, will be talking about with people in my electorate and right around the country as we talk to people as we recover from this pandemic. Sadly, the outright lies from those opposite about the government's industrial relations reforms show they remain hopelessly fixated on playing politics. The crossbench often like to talk about donors and so forth—here's a great example of those opposite receiving cash from donors and just basically listening to what they want them to do. Just oppose it—oppose everything we want to do, because you don't think it's right. But what we're actually seeing here, from talking to people, are some issues in the industrial relations system that could be improved, which will help so many more people into work in Tasmania, in Queensland and in New South Wales.

In my own electorate of Petrie, throughout the crisis, I've been out there talking to local businesses—people like the INTERSPORT franchise at Peninsula Fair Shopping Centre, which is owned by Martin and Sarah—and listening to their concerns and how they can employ more people. That's why, as Australia recovers from COVID-19, the Morrison government is working in an extensive consultation process together with industry and unions to find solutions and to provide certainty for business—pathways to full-time and part-time employment, not just casual employment, because the way the industrial relations system is right now encourages small businesses to keep putting on casuals. They pay a flat hourly rate—yes, it's with a 20 per cent loading, but if you've got someone in permanent part-time and they're doing 20 hours, Monday to Friday, in businesses, and the employer says, 'Can you do an extra five hours this week?', under Labor's system, if they're on $30 an hour, you've got to pay them $45 an hour. No wonder they're saying, 'Look, it's easier just to leave them on casual rates.' This will actually help underemployment and reduce casualisation. The Leader of the Opposition and members opposite talk about this, but there's no action.

I was today also talking to Ben from Plungie pools, a brilliant Brisbane manufacturer. Plungie pools is manufacturing in Queensland, and they are doing well. They're a pool-manufacturing business in the heart of Queensland, where it's warm and all families and individuals love to swim. They are award winning in the modern manufacturing process and in making pools affordable for all Australians because, rather than concrete pools which take three months to build, the pools are all premanufactured and they can be delivered on the back of a truck. Their innovation has led to them exporting to New Zealand. It's led to them exporting to Japan and the Pacific islands. They employed just over two people two years ago, and now they have 25-plus staff and, as well as being a pool company, they are partners with Wagners concrete, to help make the pools. They also employ some 50 other people indirectly, through subcontractors and builders. They're actually hiring six new people right now. If you're looking for work, go to plungie.com.

The Morrison government's programs have supported Queensland to having the strongest employment of all states and territories. And, through the Morrison government's $74 billion JobMaker plan, we are putting skills and jobs front and centre of our economic recovery. It builds on the significant first steps to reform our training system that we have already taken.

I'd say to all members in this place that we have a responsibility this year to get out and sell what the Australian government is doing if it's helping individuals in our own electorates. That doesn't just include government members; it includes crossbench and opposition members. This JobMaker plan will help so many young people, and we know that, if they do not get back into work, if they're on welfare for a few years, they can often be on it for life. Now is the time to promote what the Australian government is doing, and, in a bipartisan way, members opposite can do that. The JobTrainer fund and the JobMaker hiring credit are both good incentives for people. HomeBuilder, of course, has been a big success to date as well.

I was talking to another manufacturer in Brisbane today. They were telling me that manufacturing has been reshored to Australia in the last 12 months more quickly than in the previous five years. Australians are seeing a global disruption, and people do not want to experience this again. Businesses right here in Australia are now involved in advanced manufacturing. If there are teachers out there that have students, there is an opportunity to say to them, 'Why don't you consider a career in manufacturing?' For students that are, perhaps, great at arts, there are jobs there in industrial design and engineering as well, where they can get involved in the manufacturing process.

The Morrison government cares about Australians and, in the next 12 months, in the lead-up to the election in May 2022, will be reminding them about those opposite and their lack of support during this pandemic. (Time expired)

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