Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister inform the House whether he has further information regarding workers at the Teys Bros meatworks?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question. The member is of course the chairman of the government members committee dealing with issues of workplace relations and he has a very long and continuing  interest in workplace relations. I was asked yesterday by the member for Jagajaga about workers being stood down at the Teys Bros meatworks in Naracoorte in South Australia. The member for Jagajaga suggested in her question that 260 Australian workers at the meatworks had had their employment reduced to four days a week with a reduction in pay because of a shortage of stock. She also suggested that overseas workers brought to Australia on temporary 457 visas are being given enough slaughter work and extra work, such as night cleaning, to get them a full working week in order to meet their visa requirements. I indicated yesterday that I was not personally aware of the facts of this matter and that I would seek to check them, as long experience has told me not to automatically accept what is put to me in this place. I am therefore very pleased to inform the House that I have had an opportunity to check the facts and to get some advice and on this occasion the suggestions made by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition are completely wrong.

I am advised that Teys Bros employs its Australian and overseas workers on the same Australian workplace agreements. Consistent with the normal practice for this industry, the AWAs of both Australian and foreign workers alike include provisions where workers can be legally stood down on days where there is insufficient work, and where this occurs both Australian and foreign workers are stood down and they are not paid. There is no discrimination, I am told, between the Australian and foreign workers—which is directly contrary to what was suggested by the member for Jagajaga—and that is what happened in this case.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Macklin interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Responding to normal seasonal variations in its business, Teys was required to stand down all workers from a five-day shift to a four-day shift in recent weeks. Again, contrary to the suggestion from the member for Jagajaga, both foreign and Australian workers were affected.

The member for Jagajaga also suggested that foreign workers had been offered extra work to keep them in full-time employment to comply with their visa conditions. Again, I am told this is simply not the case. I am told that at times Teys Bros have offered their employees, both locally and foreign sourced, the opportunity to do unskilled labour on the days they were stood down from normal duties. Contrary again to the suggestion from the member for Jagajaga, it appears that a small group of both foreign and Australian workers took up these opportunities—five foreigners and five Australian workers—again, no discrimination between the two groups. Again, contrary to the suggestion of the member for Jagajaga that this was due to a visa requirement which placed foreign workers in a more privileged position than local workers, this offer appears to have been made to both types of workers in an attempt by the company to treat all their workers fairly—and for this the government does not seek in any way to condemn the company. In fact, I am advised that this fair treatment may amount to a technical breach of the visa requirements because the foreign workers are required to be employed only in the skilled positions that they are sponsored to undertake. DIMA officials are talking to the company about that.

The opposition has been prepared to have a go at Teys Bros without getting its facts right. That is typical of the dishonest fear campaign being run on matters of industrial relations by not only the Leader of the Opposition but now the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. It is worth telling the House a few facts about this wonderful Australian employer and wonderful Australian company. Teys Bros is the largest Australian owned beef processor and it is the largest privately owned company in Queensland. It owns six plants across Australia, in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, and it employs about 2,100 workers. Nationally the company employs 11 apprentices and 218 trainees, all of whom are Australian. Teys Bros is the largest single employer in Naracoorte, providing direct employment for 269 people, of whom less than 10 per cent are foreign workers, and generating $11 million in wages that flow directly into the local community.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Macklin interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rather than attempt to denigrate the performance of a decent Australian company that provides great employment opportunities, the opposition should cease its negative tactics and applaud the contributions that this company is making to the employment opportunities of Australians in this part of South Australia.