Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

Last week I had the very great honour of sitting in this House to hear a remarkable speech. It was delivered by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations on his tabling of this Fair Work at Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022.

I heard a minister of this House speak of gender equity and the importance of the care economy—a feminised workforce that is overworked, underpaid and undervalued. He spoke of the gender pay gap that is stubbornly high. He spoke about worker rights that have diminished drastically over the last couple of decades, due in no small part to the prevalence of insecure work. Insecure work is a scourge on our society that means workers sit by the phone, waiting for a call to a shift. They're unable to plan their lives: unable to commit to playing sport, to volunteering and to being at their kids' school events because missing an offer of work or turning down an offer of work means you don't get offered another shift. It means working two and three different jobs just to make ends meet. It means no ability to get bank loans for that desperately needed new car because of the nature of your work, and owning a home is only a dream. You have no power to ask for a pay rise or to raise occupational health and safety issues at work because it means you won't get another shift.

The minister stood there in this House and spoke of flatlining wages, despite company profits continuing to rise. What the speakers on that side of the House who keep talking about businesses failing don't seem to acknowledge is that the workers' share of national income is at an all-time low. Profits are continuing to rise but wages are not.

In the tabling of this bill, the minister spoke of a Labor government ready to change all of that, because that is what Labor governments do. They make big reforms that benefit all Australians. I have to say that I almost cried when listening to the minister give that speech in this House, in this chamber, because we have not heard words like that spoken by a minister for a decade. Finally, Australians heard a minister of their government speaking the truth about what it is like to struggle to get by, even when you have a job.

The reforms outlined in this bill, which so many of my colleagues have and will speak on over the course of this debate, go to the heart of that Labor-style reform which makes working people's lives better. Again, it was music to my ears when the minister spoke of the power of organised labour coming together in a union and working with multiple employers to maximise the process of bargaining. This is because we need to get wages rising, and bargaining is the answer. Bargaining works; we know it does. The data is evident: wage outcomes are better when organised workers stand together and bargain with their employers.

Listening to the previous speaker fearmongering—'chicken-littleing' about the sky falling in and about the world of strikes coming at us in droves because of this legislation—was absolute nonsense. It shows complete ignorance about the real world. I worked in the union movement for 20 years and striking is rare: it is a last resort. I can say that only once in my whole working life did I go on strike, and we, as nurses, cried our eyes out as we walked out those doors and laid down our tools—but so important were the issues that we had to do that.

The vast majority of bargaining ends in agreements. That's what happens. Making it easier to bargain is not about industrial action; it's about being efficient and getting wages rising. Bargaining just one aspect of getting wages rising through this bill: removing rolling fixed-term contracts; making it easier to recover unpaid entitlements; allowing flexible arrangements that work for workers and not just employers; allowing the Fair Work Commission to tackle insecurity; for women, introducing a ban on sexual harassment that means women don't have to leave the place of employment; removing secrecy clauses; making it easier for the commission to order pay increases for workers in low-paid, feminised industries—and more.

I was so proud to be here when the minister spoke his historic words, and I am proud to be in a Labor government ready to make real reform that will without doubt change people's lives. I ask the members of this House—those who are determined to amend this or even to vote it down—to listen to all voices. Listen to the workers who need this legislation as soon as possible. Don't be duped by scaremongers. This is not radical legislation. It is practical, it is workable and it will benefit businesses as well. We know that. Don't tell workers you just can't take it all in. Don't delay their wage rises. Don't delay this bill. The Chicken Littles are out there crying, 'The sky is falling!', and this legislation is far too important to be gazumped by Chicken Littles.

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