Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it is important that I rise to illuminate the chamber with some comments on the effects of the Work Choices act. This week we have heard a great deal about the real effects of this legislation upon working Australians. There was no greater example of the adverse effect upon hardworking Australians than the recent effect imposed, unwillingly of course, upon Annette Harris, an employee of the company Spotlight. She has been asked to forfeit more than $90 per week of her ordinary weekly earnings so that the company can impose Australian workplace agreements upon its staff in one store. What we know, as a result of the way in which the legislation is constructed, is that this is likely to follow in other stores of that company and, as a result, will follow in other companies that compete with Spotlight.

This is a race to the bottom. I have had the great fortune to travel across Australia as chair of Labor’s industrial relations task force. We have managed to visit 20 electorates in the last five months. We have visited 15 government held seats. We have travelled to every state and territory of this land. We have spoken to hundreds of people. We have spoken to employees, to small businesses, to church groups and to community organisations about their concerns and anxieties about the Work Choices act. This week in parliament we saw an outrageous example of the effects of that on Spotlight employees.

This is just the beginning of a race to the bottom across this country. There is no doubt it will continue unless there are fundamental changes to the industrial relations policies of this nation. We have heard stories of maltreatment of employees by some employers in Lismore. We heard the same thing in Gladstone, in Townsville and in Launceston.

Mark Baker (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Baker interjecting

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to let the member for Braddon know that we will be in Burnie and Devonport soon.

Mark Baker (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I look forward to it.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sure that, unfortunately, as a result of this legislation we will hear stories about the effects on workers suffering in those great communities of Devonport and Burnie in Tasmania. What will the member for Braddon do? The member for Braddon voted for the legislation. He likes to pretend to be a friend to workers down in Tasmania, but he came to Canberra and voted for this legislation. Like many government members, he pretends to be a friend to workers, but when he comes to Canberra he votes against their interests. We will be informing all the constituents in the seat of the member for Braddon about the manner in which their member has represented their interests, as we will of course with all of the members of government held seats. Their constituents deserve to know what their representatives are doing in Canberra and they deserve to know about the effects of this legislation. Of course, we do not need to tell many of them about that because they are already experiencing these adverse effects.

This task force set up by the federal parliamentary Labor Party will continue its work until election day in order to expose the way in which this legislation imposes itself upon good employers so that they do bad things, as well as imposing itself upon working people. This legislation allows bad employers to do bad things and forces good employers to do the same. This legislation is coercive by nature. It legitimises the bad behaviour of some employers and forces decent employers—good corporate citizens—to consider doing the same just to stay in competition. That is an outrageous regime to set up in this country—a commercial arrangement whereby companies have to consider cutting the conditions of their own staff in order to compete with the worst elements of the employers in this country. What a regime to set up! What have the workers of this country done to this government? They have been the backbone of this nation’s economic performance for 20 years and, for their efforts, they are being treated in an outrageously bad way. We will continue to expose that across the country in as many government seats as possible. (Time expired)

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

For the benefit of the House, I understand there has been a lightning strike and that the lights will be restored shortly.