Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Those members opposite talk about the importance of respect in the workplace, and yet what do they see on building sites? How many of those members opposite have actually worked on building sites? I ask that question. There are only three of you in here. I would suggest there are very, very few who have. If they think that building sites are pure as snow, where everybody behaves themselves, let me tell you that the CFMMEU do not provide the same level of respect that those members opposite would talk about in this place. The hypocritical nature of those members opposite knows no bounds.

The reality is that this is a callous and careless Labor government. This workplace relations reform is reckless, wrong and potentially disastrous. It's just another example of a Labor government who doesn't care. They talk about closing loopholes. We've heard the minister talk about this bill and how it closes the loopholes in employment. It's a tricky slogan, but it's far from the truth. The bill won't close any loopholes.

What it will do is widen the gap between the big end of town and hardworking Australians. What it will do is tear an enormous hole in Australia's economic productivity. It's nothing less than an attack on businesses and subcontractors. It'll cripple businesses. It'll crush subcontractors. It'll constrain business growth. It'll contract employment participation. These reckless reforms will send a shock wave through the economy, shatter business investor confidence and decimate Australian innovation and ingenuity. Labor's plan for workplace relations is to punish workplaces for their success and give unions a free ride into board rooms and to back room decision-making tables. At the end of the day, this is all about providing unions with power.

We talked about costs earlier. What is this bill going to do in relation to costs? You would have thought, as a result of this government, when the cost of living has gone sky high for Australians in all areas: rentals, mortgages, fuel, electricity, gas and food—everything has gone up. Everything has increased in cost, and now they want to introduce this bill, which, according to their own figures, is going to cost an additional $9 billion in wages over the next 10 years. Those members opposite may not understand this, but, when you put an impost on businesses, that will flow through to the people who take those services—that is, consumers. Not only are those members opposite driving up the cost of living for everyday Australians; there are now additional costs that people are going to have to pay, additional costs that they cannot afford.

The legislation uses words like 'protecting' and 'safeguarding', but whose interests are they protecting and safeguarding? Protecting bargained wages in the way that they have proposed will hurt labour hire workers, not benefit them. Those members opposite have a pathological hatred for labour hire. Why? Because they can't unionise the workforce—that's why. Dismantling the casual workforce, Labor's mighty goal, will drive up unemployment, drive down investment and shut down businesses left, right and centre. Do you know what else it will do? It will drive down Australia's productivity. We already have plunging productivity rates in this country and the government will make it worse through this bill.

Removing subcontractors' independence only strips them of their ability to work for themselves, balance their lifestyle, set their own conditions and grow as sole traders with the ebbs and flows of our dynamic economy. These are not workers trapped in the gig economy. That is essentially what the minister has done here. He has roped in hundreds of thousands of independent contractors under this wide umbrella of the gig economy. Subbies, casuals, entrepreneurs and business owners are not the gig economy or trapped in an underregulated sector. They are the heartbeat and the backbone of the Australian economy. They don't need the government to come in and save them. They want the government to get out of the way.

This legislation will smother Australia's pioneer spirit and elevate the Fair Work Commission to the role of employer, not just regulator, of thousands of hardworking Australian subbies, casuals, labour hire workers and business owners. Removing decision-making powers for business owners and subcontractors is big government gone mad. We all know that this government, like every Labor government, is all about big government. This government, like any labour government, always and at every occasion believes that the bigger government is the better because it thinks Australian workers and Australians in general don't know what's best for us; government always knows what's best for us! It's the antithesis of Australia's reward-for-effort economy. It's uniformity at all costs and it fails to appreciate the unique contours of our local, regional and national economies, particularly in the building, tourism and social sectors on which Australia depends right now. This bill is a mechanism to disempower hardworking Australians and we should fight it every step of the way. (Time expired)

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