Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This government was elected with a mandate: to deliver a better future for all Australians. Core to that is to get wages moving for working Australians. We know that wages have been deliberately held back for almost a decade by those opposite. We know it because they told us. They said low wages were in fact a deliberate design feature of their economic plan. Let's think for a moment about what that means. It means less money in your pocket. It means that over this entire past decade, while prices went up—food, petrol, energy, child care, health care—there was no more money with your pay cheque. No matter how much those opposite claim to care about the cost of living now, that was a situation they did nothing to address for nine long years.

Which brings me to the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022. This bill does a number of important things that will provide benefits for all Australians. Specifically, it will get wages moving by modernising what the evidence of the past 10 years shows us to be a broken bargaining system. It will empower workers in historically overlooked industries to work together to negotiate with employers and providers for better conditions and pay. Unlike those opposite, I attended the government's Jobs and Skills Summit, and there I heard business and unions agree on this point: while the current system certainly isn't delivering the real-wage increases that Australians deserve, it is also complex and cumbersome for businesses, particularly small businesses without extensive HR departments and resources. Isn't it time, therefore, that we did something about a system that isn't working for anyone?

This bill also protects workers by banning job ads that advertise below the relevant minimum pay rate—a fairly commonsense course of action to me. It will help close what is a stubborn gender pay gap by banning pay secrecy clauses and expanding access to flexible work arrangements. My colleagues the member for Spence and the member for Moreton both mentioned this. My personal experience is that pay secrecy is absolutely used to underpay women—it happened to me. I don't say that because I'm special; I say that because it's really, really common.

Minister Burke has consulted exceptionally widely on this bill, and I know he remains committed to reaching acceptable outcomes for all parties. The consensus-driven approach is a hallmark of this government, working together in the national interest. We will continue to consult with stakeholders and engage in the Senate's important inquiry process but, as the Prime Minister is fond of saying, we don't want to waste a day of the privilege of being in government. We don't want to waste any time before making these sensible improvements to our workplace relations system to make it work better for everyone. Australians have already sat through a wasted decade, watching their real wages go backwards—now is the time for action.

Crucially, this bill continues this government's focus on addressing gender inequalities. Just yesterday I was proud to vote in favour of our legislation to deliver the recommendations of the Respect@Work report in full. Last month I voted to make child care cheaper for 96 per cent of families in the system, and to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks. The minister's approach to this bill has been underpinned by recognition that some forms of work in this country are not valued as they should be. These professions—health care, aged care, disability support and early childhood education—are, you'll be surprised to know—or maybe not—powered overwhelmingly by women. For too long they have been either explicitly or implicitly undervalued precisely because they are associated in our collective consciousness with the term 'women's work'. That was the finding of the Fair Work Commission just last week when it ruled in favour of giving aged-care workers a 15 per cent pay rise.

This government values the work these Australians do, and is going about creating a workplace relations system that reflects that. We are taking action to deliver on our commitment to the Australian people to get wages moving and to deliver more secure jobs, better pay and a fairer workplace relations system. Ultimately, giving hardworking Australians—Australians who care for our kids, nurse us when we are sick and provide support to our most vulnerable—the respect, the recognition and, yes, the pay they deserve seems like something all of us in the place should support. I hear nice words in this place about how much we value frontline workers in the caring professions—and yes, largely women—but then there are always the buts, buts, buts. They want all these things for workers but—so put your money where your mouth is and enable these hardworking Australians to get the money they deserve.

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