Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to stand this evening to speak in support of the government's Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022. We all know, on this side of the House, that good secure work should be able to pay your bills. It seems like a fundamental principle that we should all be able to support and want citizens to be able to enjoy.

Labor's been the voice of workers for over 130 years, so it should come as no surprise that we might want to pursue legislation that delivers fair pay for people. Indeed, the Labor Party, as anyone who's read our history would know, was formed originally to represent the interests of workers, and that's exactly what we're doing again in this chamber today. It's a part of our DNA. Decades of struggle and suppression in the 19th century motivated workers to establish the Labor electoral leads and to ensure that they had political representation, and that is all for the betterment of Australian working men and women.

Now, here we are again in 2022, and it's a Labor government that is undertaking that important work of being a voice for Australian working men and women after the Liberals' deliberate plan to keep wages down for almost a decade now. It's extraordinary, listening to some of the contributions and the faux outrage on a bill that seeks to deliver both secure employment for people and better wages and conditions. It seems hard to fathom, really, that you wouldn't support this. But if you have lived with an ideology that says trickle-down economics is a truth then perhaps you might have some difficulty with the concept—and with reflecting back on the last 10 years of history here, where increases in productivity, and all of the things that workers were asked to do, have not resulted at the end of the day in any kind of benefit in terms of delivering a better pay packet for those going home at the end of a shift or the working week.

There has been an insistence of Liberal ideology around the notion that low unemployment rates would push up wages. We have a lot of evidence to suggest that was not true—a lot of evidence. We know that the idea of trickle-down economics, that businesses and people doing well at the top would somehow deliver great benefits to the workers, alongside increased productivity and boosting of wages, didn't work either. These are not truths. Shamefully, all of those promises resulted in nothing but a wasted decade, and wages growth remained unacceptably low. Workers really can't afford to wait any longer, and nor should they. That's why this bill is delivering on more secure jobs, better pay and a fairer workplace relations system. It's a commitment we made to the Australian people throughout the campaign. There are no surprises in this bill; we're honouring our word. I think the Australian people will be somewhat relieved to have a government that is honouring its word.

This secure jobs, better pay bill is going to fix what has become a very broken bargaining system in Australia. It will get wages moving again by expanding access to enterprise bargaining and multi-employer bargaining systems. It will abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission. Again, Labor has long been on the record seeking to abolish both of those organisations. It's a bill that will protect workers by banning job ads that advertise for below the relevant minimum wage. It's astonishing that anyone in this parliament would object to a guarantee that you don't go out trying to seek workers on the basis of paying them less then what they are entitled to receive. There is a minimum wage for a very good reason. As I said, this bill will help protect workers by banning job ads that advertise for below minimum pay rates. It will ban secrecy clauses and expand access to flexible work arrangements, because workers that want to discuss pay equity in their workplace should not be prohibited from doing so by their employment contracts.

Transparency is essential to reform—but, you know what? It's absolute essential to delivering a gender pay equity outcome in this nation as well. In addition to all of those measures that I've just referred to, the bill is designed to ensure that some of the most undervalued workers in this country, workers in female dominated professions like health care, aged care, disability support and early childhood education get the pay rises and the support that they deserve. These are the workers, and mostly women workers, who've long been forgotten, who have been missed out in so much of the discussion around increased productivity measures and delivering for the nation. They've worked their guts out for a very long time and got us all through the pandemic, and they deserve more than thanks at this moment. They deserve secure jobs and better pay. Australia's national gender pay gap is currently at a very unacceptable 14.1 per cent.

I don't think anybody in this House would be proud of this figure. I'm sure even members opposite, who have ideological opposition to some aspects of this bill, as I understand it, would be hard pressed to suggest that a stubborn, persistent gender pay gap of 14.1 per cent is okay. On average, a woman working full time is earning $263.90 less than a man working full time in Australia. Again, who says that's an acceptable outcome? Certainly not anybody on this side of the House. Let's be very clear. This is not a choice that women make. We don't choose to enter into undervalued, underpaid professions. It's not a conscious decision women are making. It's just that women have been fighting for decades now, I think it would be very fair to say, for equal pay and conditions. It's a very long history in our nation.

This bill joins a long line of vital reform work, including the national minimum wage and equal pay cases of 1969 and 1972, the passage of the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984, the establishment of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in 1986 and improvements in the Fair Work Act in 2009, just to name a few. This bill is a combination of relentless advocacy and campaigning by women workers, their unions, gender equity advocates, academics and countless women in this very building. And a big shout-out to the Hunter workers in my electorate of Newcastle who have been at the forefront of this campaign every step of the way.

I am proud to be part of a Labor government where 52 per cent of our party room is comprised of women, and that's a government party room. Women aren't an afterthought for the Australian Labor Party; we are part of every decision and every policy. That's why our policies create a better future for all Australians, not just a select few. Being a voice for workers is core business for Labor, and secure jobs and better pay is good for working people, it's good for business and it's good for our nation.

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