Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

there was a change in there to establish multi-employer bargaining, and, uncharacteristically, it made the Leader of the Opposition a little bit angry. Uncharacteristically, it made the shadow minister Senator Cash exaggerate a little bit. She said it would close down Australia. Those opposite, in their speeches, said it would result in coast-to-coast strikes.

The results are starting to come in on all of this. Only the other week, we had the latest results on the days lost to industrial action. In their last quarter, the days lost to industrial action was 128,000 days. The figures have just come in for the most recent quarter and the days lost to industrial action were 16,000 days. The days lost to industrial action was seven times higher under them, but, at the same time that that's happening, we're getting the results come in on multi-employer bargaining. And, at the risk of, again, making the Leader of the Opposition angry, this does involve a union. It involves the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. We now have one of the first multi-employer bargains registered and delivering pay rises in the sector.

In one of these, there are 200 employees across eight companies, including some who work at Liverpool Hospital—not within the members electorate but very much servicing the member's electorate in South Western Sydney. I spoke to one of those workers—Josh—who's been working in the industry for 12 years. As a result of this multi-employer bargain, he's now getting a $100-a-week pay rise—$100 every week that those opposite tried to stop him from getting—with further pay rises locked in over the next three years. As well as his pay rise, he's also getting a tax cut of $3,700 a year. That's how you help people with the cost of living, not by pushing up their power prices with your risky, expensive nuclear reactors. When I rang Josh, this is what he said to me: 'It's not just better for us; it's better for the operators too.' He said, 'It's better for the employers because they can do the right thing by their workers now and not be undercut by dodgy operators'—something that is only possible because we now have multi-employer bargaining. Companies now compete on quality, on systems and on brand, whereas those opposite just want to be competing on a race to the bottom on wages. People can earn more, keep more of what they earn, instead of the Leader of the Opposition's plan of working longer for less.

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