Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister inform the House how the government is building a strong safety net for Australian workers and how this safety net compares with existing protections for Australian workers?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government was elected on a platform of responsible economic management, delivering for working Australians and working families under financial pressure and, on top of that, investing in the future. One of those areas where working families have faced a real challenge in their family budgets is the industrial relations system called Work Choices left to them by our predecessors—an industrial relations system which empowered employers to strip away penalty rates, overtime and other basic additions to their working wage with no compensation whatsoever. That is the industrial relations system those opposite supported; that is the industrial relations system which, to this day, they remain committed to reintroducing should they be returned to office.

Therefore, the government have acted on our pre-election commitment to do two things. We have acted, firstly, to abolish AWAs for the future and, secondly, to ensure that we have a fair and flexible industrial relations system for the future. A cornerstone of a fair and flexible industrial relations system of course consists of a basic safety net which applies to all workers in the federal industrial relations system. When you stand back from the industrial relations debate and look at the flow-through impact on the budgets of working families, what you get in your pay packet—in penalty rates, overtime and basic add-on conditions—is very important to your ability to cope with cost-of-living pressures from petrol, from groceries, from food, from rents and from mortgages.

When it comes to the impact on mortgages, those opposite, who presided over 10 mortgage increases in a row, should bear in mind the additional burden which their period in government delivered to the families struggling with cost-of-living pressures. So, in addition to the industrial relations pressures, through the system that they presided over and implemented, which impacted working families across the board and which they were committed to continue into the future, there were 10 interest rate rises in a row—all flowing through to workers suffering financial pressure.

Prior to the election we promised to get rid of AWAs for the future and through legislation we have honoured that commitment. Beyond that, we said we would also introduce a fair and flexible system, the cornerstone of which is a system of National Employment Standards. Today, the Deputy Prime Minister and I have launched these 10 National Employment Standards. This represents a basic protection for workers right across the country—fairer for workers and simpler for employers. As a simple test of how easy it is to get through this system relative to what preceded it, the equivalent of employment standards in the previous government’s regime added up to 149 pages of their so-called Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. What we have launched today, covering 10 National Employment Standards, is a document of just 50 pages.

If you go to the content, what we have now is important new protection under the National Employment Standards so that parents of young children have a right to request flexible working arrangements. Secondly, families have 12 months additional parental leave because each parent will have a separate entitlement to up to 12 months unpaid parental leave. Thirdly, employees will have a statutory right to redundancy pay, an award entitlement that was never protected by the previous government. On top of that, employees will have a basic right to workplace information. These standards will also apply to same-sex couples in line with the government’s recent decision to remove all forms of discrimination against same-sex couples in areas such as tax, superannuation and employment conditions—and this side of the House is proud of that reform as well.

The government remains committed to the implementation of its full industrial relations package. This is part of it. These National Employment Standards are core when it comes to restoring decency to the workplace and to ensure that we have fairness for all workers into the future. It is the first step in constructing this new system—important for the family pay packet and important in terms of the ability of working Australians and working families to deal with the cost-of-living pressures which they are now under.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister guarantee that no worker will be worse off as a result of the introduction of the 10 National Employment Standards?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I tell you what we will not be guaranteeing, and that is that interest rates will be kept at ‘record lows’. We will not be guaranteeing that interest rates will be kept at record lows—like the party opposite did, delivering us 10 interest rate rises in a row. We are not in the business of making those sorts of irresponsible guarantees. What we can guarantee is a fair and flexible industrial relations system of which the government is proud. Those opposite stand condemned for an unfair system which stripped basic conditions away from workers. Those opposite should hang their heads in shame over the system they implemented and presided over.

Jon Sullivan (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the minister outline for the House how the government is protecting key minimum entitlements for Australian workers?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Longman for his question. I know that he is someone deeply committed to fairness and balance in Australian workplaces. Today, as the Prime Minister has said, the government has announced its National Employment Standards—10 standards for all Australians. Whether someone is working part-time or full-time, they will have the benefit of these 10 National Employment Standards.

I particularly want to outline the process that has brought these 10 National Employment Standards to the public. When we first met as the 42nd parliament and the government introduced its transition act to end the making of Australian workplace agreements, the government also publicly announced an exposure draft of its 10 National Employment Standards. That consultative process of an exposure draft was done so that people could have their say about this basic cornerstone of the industrial relations system. One hundred and twenty-nine submissions were received and, as a result of the submissions received, these National Employment Standards have been improved.

This stands in stark contrast to the way in which the Liberal Party conducted itself over Work Choices and the so-called Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. Then, apart from a policy wrapped in industrial relations extremism, the Liberal Party did not seek the mandate of the Australian people and it developed its legislation in secret, without consultation, meaning it was complex and technically flawed. This government have taken a different approach. Firstly, we told the Australian people what we stood for in workplace relations; we spelt out in our policies what we were going to introduce, including these 10 National Employment Standards. Secondly, we have made sure that these have been developed in a consultative way, through an exposure draft process which we have taken seriously and responded to.

These 10 National Employment Standards are one part of Labor’s new safety net. This is a safety net for all Australian workers. Labor will also be introducing, through our award modernisation process being conducted by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, modern, simple awards. The National Employment Standards and the modern, simple awards, which will be for employees who earn $100,000 or less, will come into existence on 1 January 2010.

I find it remarkable that those opposite, who did not believe in guaranteeing basic standards for Australian workers, are now asking the kinds of questions that they are. What we can certainly guarantee is that, unlike Work Choices, we will not have statutory individual employment agreements that allow basic conditions to be ripped away. Let us remind ourselves that all this feigned interest now in the conditions of working people—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They chant out in support of Work Choices. We know that they supported Work Choices. They supported a scheme with statutory individual employment agreements that allowed protected award conditions to be ripped away from Australian workers. We know, for example, shift work loadings were excluded in 70 per cent of agreements and penalty rates were excluded in 63 per cent of agreements. That is what they believed in: the rip-off of basic conditions of Australian working families. They believed in it then, they believe in it now and, if they ever have the opportunity, Work Choices would be back. We know this because, when we gave them the opportunity to vote in this House to verify that individual statutory employment agreements would not be reintroduced under a future Liberal government, they refused to vote for that proposition. They believe in Work Choices, they believe in rip-offs and they believe in no-one having any standards, and no cant or hypocrisy from the other side can ever cover that up.