Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The defining value of Australian culture is the notion of a fair go. It reflects itself in the value of equality—that all Australians are equal before the law. In World War II, it was a defining characteristic of our troops, and it became evident when a number of our troops were imprisoned in prison-of-war camps in South-East Asia. When food was allocated, the Australians shared it equally amongst their mates. That was a distinguishing feature and characteristic of the Australians, compared to the British, where rank was important in terms of who got access to food. In our workplaces, it manifests itself in the notion of fair wages and conditions.

In most of the world, the employment relationship is an unequal one. There is an imbalance in power in favour of the employer, because, at the end of the day, they can dismiss the employee if they don't like the wages and conditions. You see it in the United States, where they don't have strong unions and they don't have strong workplace laws, and there is an imbalance in workplaces between the power of employers and that of workers. It manifests itself in income inequality, in social disadvantage, in entrenched poverty and in the massive social problems that now exist in the United States of America.

In Australia, since Federation, we have chosen to do things differently, because of that defining value in our culture of the fair go and the idea that we should have more balance in the employment relationship that's based on equality. These laws that we are passing through the parliament ensure that Australia maintains that fair go in our workplaces, as technology changes the nature of the employment relationship—particularly in the gig economy and particularly in the increased use of contractors, whereas, in the past, they would have been direct permanent employees.

The change in the nature of that employment relationship isn't fiction. It's based on fact and evidence. It's manifesting itself in a disadvantage for Australian workers, and that's picked up in some vital economic statistics. In December 2022, the share of income that went to profits in Australia was the largest that it has ever been—larger than in 2020, when the share of profits was maximised because of JobKeeper. But even that was beaten in December 2022, when 29 per cent of national income went to profits—the highest level ever in our nation's history. Yet workers' share of GDP, at the same period, reached its lowest level ever, at 45 per cent. The statistics don't lie. The change in the nature of technology in the workplace has led to an imbalance in the workplace relationship that has led to workers being disadvantaged.

If you add the cost-of-living pressure to that, is it any wonder that over the last couple of years we've seen nurses, teachers, police officers, firefighters, miners and aged-care workers marching in the streets, demanding reform of our workplace relations system, demanding a return to the fair go and demanding more equality? That is what this government is doing. We are listening to those important workers and saying, 'We hear you.' We are going to deliver on our promise that we made in the lead-up to the last election to get wages moving again and to restore balance once again to our workplace relations system. That is the reason why the Australian population voted for the Labor Party at the last election, and we intend to keep our commitment to those workers who voted for us.

I think it's a disgrace that the coalition are saying no to these laws. How can they say that nurses, teachers, firefighters, aged-care workers, miners, all of these important workers and, indeed, the rest of the working population that contribute so much to our economic development and our nation's income don't deserve a wage increase that's fair, permanency of employment and the principle of same job, same pay? I can't believe that the coalition say that they support miners, yet the miners and their unions are saying, 'We're sick and tired of two miners working on a job, doing the same job and working the same hours on the same shift, yet be paid different wages and conditions simply because one of them happens to be employed under a labour hire contract and the other one is a permanent worker.' And this mob think that that's alright. And you say that you support miners? How do you support miners when miners are saying that enough is enough? You're liars. You don't support them, and that is why they said they'd had enough at the last election.

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