Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

 I've been in this place for 10 years. Do you know how many people have come into my office who are casual workers, gig workers or subcontractors and said: 'Oh, we need to make all these changes'? Zero, none. I'm pretty active in my electorate. If you come to my electorate and talk to people—I do regular mobile offices. I get out there. I talk to people. No-one's raised these issues with me. All of a sudden these people come into this place and speak with authority when it comes to gig workers, subcontractors and casuals—from a bloke who's a minister who's never even employed anyone out of his own pocket. Give me a break! At least this bloke over here has been a doctor. Maybe he's employed someone; I don't know. But the minister hasn't. So it's about a better workplace for a gig worker who currently has no minimum standards.

When you look at the legislation, there are 200 pages of additional legislation that they want to put in. I'm someone who has employed people. I was a company director not for 12 months like this minister but for 10 years. I actually had a staff of 20 people—full-time workers, casuals and subcontractors. I actually understood what it was about. I can tell you that nothing in this bill is going to do anything to help a lot of these people apart from what I named before, which they voted down and wouldn't split on yesterday. The Independents pleaded with them to separate the bill and vote—'Let's get this through and get a committee to look at the rest of it.' But, no. Because they are governing for their union donors, they don't want a bar of it. It's disappointing.

The coalition is serious when it comes to standing up for Australians employed in the job market. The government's Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 seeks to strip independent contractors of their ability to build their businesses. In question time today, the minister said, 'These gig workers are actually classed as small-business owners.' There are actually advantages to being a small business and working as a subcontractor. There are deductions. There are advantages. But, no. Everyone has to be the same. According to the Labor Party, we can't have casuals because they are not signed up to unions. We can't have subcontractors because they are not part of the union movement—this is the way they govern the country.

The stuff they're bringing in to this place they brought in 30 years ago. They're rehashing it. They're bringing it back again. We're going to get rid of some of this stuff when we come in because it's not in the interests of all Australians. It's not. We're going to get rid of it. Do you know what? When most of us are dead and gone, in 50 or 100 years, the Labor Party will still be trying to save Medicare. They'll be saying, 'We invented this 200 years ago,' or whatever it is. They will still be coming in here saying, 'We've got to support unions.' That's what they do. They just rehash old policies. It does not matter what times we're in. It doesn't matter what our constituents actually say to those of us in this place. What matters to them is the union donors who pay and elect every single one of these members. All their funds come from union donors.

Government members interjecting—

Don't wave your hands, members over there. Where did you get your funding from? From the unions. That's why you are legislating for them now. You actually come into this place and you legislate for your donors. If that isn't corruption, what is? I know if I did it for my donors, it'd be all over the place.

What has the Australian Industry Group's Innes Willox said? He said the government hasn't gone far enough in ensuring that this law 'isn't able to be used by unions to challenge and interfere with a raft of other commercial arrangements'. That's what AiG said. They went on about wage theft.

Members opposite bring up people that have died at work. Do you know what? Every single death at work is an absolute tragedy. Are you telling me that this legislation is going to stop people dying at work? Can you guarantee that? Of course, they can't. But they bring this bill in and spend hours debating it and making out that they are the saviours of the Australian people when it comes to workplace relations. Well, they're not. A lot of them have had a very narrow employment history in this place.

We see under this government that productivity has fallen through the floor for three consecutive quarters. For the first time since 2005 we have experienced the deepest three-quarter fall on record. As a family business, you can never get those hours back. I understood that when I was employing 20 people. I sold my house, bought into my old man's business and grew the business from three staff to 20. I was involved in the pest control business, which is a bit like a trade. I had operators out there every day of the week. But if I had one job booked in for the day, I could never get those hours back. That's lost productivity. When you have lost productivity like we are seeing under the Albanese Labor government, guess what? It pushes up the cost of living. If those members opposite were serious and they had not been debating the Voice, which got voted down in every state in Australia, for the last 18 months and were actually listening to people, they'd understand that cost of living is going through the roof. It is through the roof. The reality is that productivity has fallen through the floor. When productivity falls through the floor, small businesses have to increase their prices. When you increase your prices it affects people. They have less money in their wallet, they have no money in their pocket, and they're living week to week.

Debate interrupted.

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