Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hunter for the question because, from the moment the member for Hunter arrived here, he was asking for us to legislate for workers in his area to be able to get pay rises. Once we had legislated, he started asking questions about what those pay rises were that had been delivered. What's changed this week, as of the Leader of the Opposition's speech yesterday, is now we're not simply talking about pay rises that have been delivered; we're now talking about pay cuts that are being threatened by the Leader of the Opposition.

So I can say to the member for Hunter that the speech yesterday referred specifically to the pay rise that Danielle, who I previously referred to and who works at the Mount Pleasant mine, has received. When people go back to their electorates they can explain that someone like Danielle is now being promised at the next election that, if the Leader of the Opposition is in government, she would get a $33,000 pay cut, because the same-job same-pay provisions that he referred to in his speech yesterday are the only reason she got the pay rise.

The Leader of the Opposition, on the plane home this afternoon, might be able to explain to the flight attendants, who don't just provide a service role but are also trained in safety—flight attendants play a really important role on the plane—that the pay rises that they're just finding out about through the Fair Work Commission are now promised to be pay cuts that the Leader of the Opposition is taking to the next election in his industrial relations policy. So, for those people who were employed as labour hire and were being paid $16,000 less than the people they work side by side with, the Leader of the Opposition as of yesterday is now taking to the election a promise that their pay will be cut by $16,000.

It's not only people affected by the same-job same-pay provisions. People might remember that the secure jobs, better pay bill dealt with multi-employer bargaining. The speech yesterday had a direct attack on and a promise to get rid of multi-employer bargaining. People who are involved in air-conditioning systems around the country, the sheet metal workers, have now received a 26 per cent pay rise in their enterprise agreement. The Leader of the Opposition is promising to get rid of the principles that have caused that to be the case. He goes to the next election promising a pay cut for those people working in air-conditioning. We've had the exact example today of the early childhood educators. Their pay rise process started with multi-employer bargaining. This Leader of the Opposition goes to the election wanting to cut their pay.

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