Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Same Job, Same Pay) Bill 2021. I think it might be a moment to take the temperature down in this place. The member for Mackellar, on a Monday morning, likes to come into the House and yell and scream across the chamber. We are here this morning to debate a very simple proposition before the House, and that is that if you do the same job you deserve the same pay. It really is simple, and it goes to the very founding of this country. We were founded with an egalitarian spirit. We were founded by workers coming together across the colonies and determining what a fair and just society would look like. The proposition before the House today speaks to exactly that. It speaks to the egalitarian nature of the society that we have striven to build: that people who do the same job should be given the same pay and conditions. It is not too much to ask. I imagine that members opposite want to see the same pay for the same job in this place. Individuals within this chamber, when given the opportunity to negotiate their way to a lower pay deal, might find that difficult to stomach, but it's okay for everybody out there.

I've got some things to say about labour hire and the impacts it's having on communities like mine, in Lalor. The notion of same job, same pay has absolutely gone out the window for lots and lots of people, particularly young people, in my electorate. I speak to young people of 27, 28, up to 33, who have not yet had a permanent job, who have gone from labour hire to labour hire, from site to site through various labour hire companies, and they are unable to plan for their future. They find themselves working on the same job site as someone else and earning considerably less. On top of that, they have no job security. This is a travesty for the young people in my electorate, an absolute travesty. They can't plan. If this continues and these young people start families then their children will live in what I know, from my experience working in schools in the western suburbs of Melbourne, is a chaotic household where people can't plan for next week, can't financially plan to ensure that they can meet commitments. They are put into anxious states when a bill comes in because they don't know if they are going to be able to pay it next week. There are families in my electorate for whom, because parents working in labour hire don't have permanency, it is difficult to commit to children playing sport, because they don't know, week to week, whether they're going to be able to allow that to happen.

This is not some big conspiracy on our side, unlike what is being purported on the other side. This is simply about fairness. It is simply about ensuring that we build a society where everybody feels that they are making a contribution that is valued, that is valued by their government. Young people in my electorate are asked to make a contribution, pay their taxes, but what do they get in return from this government? This government has been in power for eight years and it has ignored this rise. We hear a lot about the surge workforce and we hear a lot about flexibility—but at what price to the families and young people in my electorate? The electorate's onto this government. They're figuring this out. They know that, under this government, the notion of flexibility has become a con job. They know that they will pay the price for the flexibility those opposite think suits them. They know they will spend their days waiting for a text message to say they've got work tomorrow, waiting for a text message to find out where they'll be working tomorrow. You've got to understand that, when you're working for labour hire, you might be working in Corangamite one day and Bendigo the next. The text message can come through at 11 o'clock and you've got to try and plan your life around that. This is not a way to build a fair society. It is not a way to build a society where workers feel valued and where people can plan for their future.

Those opposite should support this legislation. They should support a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. (Time expired)

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