Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with a great deal of pleasure that I rise today to make my contribution to the debate on the Fair Work Bill 2008. This bill delivers on Labor’s promises to sweep away Work Choices and to replace it with a fair workplace relations system. This bill builds on the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Act 2008, enacted in March, which ended the making of AWAs, introduced a genuine no disadvantage test for agreements and commenced award modernisation.

This bill provides a balanced framework of workplace rights and obligations that is fair to both employees and employers. It is easier to understand in terms of structure, organisation and expression and it reduces the compliance burden on business. A key feature of the Fair Work Bill is a fair and comprehensive safety net of employment conditions that cannot be stripped away. A new framework for fair enterprise bargaining is provided that includes the following features: no individual statutory agreements; employers must bargain collectively where a majority of employees desire this; arbitration is available where parties flout good faith bargaining obligations; and agreements can deal with a much wider range of matters, including relationships between the employers and unions. Unfair dismissal rights have been reinstated. Unfair dismissal rights are now provided for the vast majority of employees, including high earners who are covered by awards and enterprise agreements. The bill also enhances protections from discrimination and of freedom of association and reinstates right of entry.

Fair Work Australia has an important role. Fair Work Australia will bring together seven existing agencies with integrated service delivery. Fair Work Australia is able to conciliate, mediate, call compulsory conferences and make recommendations on the application of one party. Fair Work Australia has an important role assisting parties with bargaining, especially in the low-paid stream, and in supervising industrial action and right of entry.

There is a clear contrast between the Fair Work Bill and the former Work Choices legislation. Work Choices allowed agreements to be slashed without the safety net. Fair Work Australia agreements cannot fall below the minimum wage at any time. Work Choices left awards to wither on the vine. Fair Work Australia reinstates awards as a fair and decent safety net of conditions, industry and occupation based. Work Choices gave no effective right to bargain collectively, whereas Fair Work Australia says employers must bargain collectively where the majority of employees desire this. Work Choices was about AWAs. Fair Work Australia states that there will be no individual statutory agreements; the focus is on collective bargaining at the enterprise. Unfair dismissal rights were slashed under Work Choices. Under Fair Work Australia, unfair dismissal rights for a vast majority of employees, including high earners, are covered by awards, with special provisions for small business employers with fewer than 15 employees. Work Choices marginalised unions. Under Fair Work Australia, agreements can deal with the relationship between the employer and the union. Work Choices rendered the independent industrial umpire powerless. Fair Work Australia will be able to conciliate, mediate, call compulsory conferences and make recommendations on the application of one party.

We must never forget the examples of what occurred under Work Choices. Here are a few examples that were tabled in the Northern Territory parliament by then Minister Paul Henderson. A young fellow was working for a contractor in the construction business and was sacked without notice. He had spent two years as an apprentice electrician, essentially working on residential construction sites, wiring power points and fans. He had talked to a mate of his who worked for one of our major mining companies in the Northern Territory. Through a series of discussions, the mining company offered him work out at the mine for four to six months to get some industrial experience as an apprentice electrician. He went to his employer and said, ‘I’d like the opportunity to spend four or six months working on a mine site to broaden my experience as I do my apprenticeship and get exposure to some different things.’ His employer accused him of being disloyal and sacked him on the spot. His mother was in tears. She could not believe that this could happen in Australia to an 18-year-old kid. Work Choices was unfair and that was un-Australian.

Another example: after two months of work an employee was sacked without notice. At the time of the termination the employer alleged that the worker had been giving away goods for free and had stolen them. No complaint was ever made to the police and the employee was never given an opportunity to respond to the allegations. That is unfair. This is a final example. After a period of six months of casual employment a worker was made permanent. Two months after being made permanent the employee’s position changed. However, no change was made to his remuneration. The worker approached the manager to complain about bullying and intimidation from other employees towards him and another group of employees of a particular ethnic background. Following this, a direction came from management that only English was to be spoken in the workplace. One day later the employee was sacked. This bill is about fairness in the workplace—that is, about being able to legitimately raise concerns with your employer without fear.

The former government was out of touch not only with workers in this country but with modern workplaces. In Solomon I have wonderful business people. They are innovative people, hardworking people and committed people. They look after their workers. I have business people in my electorate who were insulted by the Work Choices legislation, and I had one say to me that he read Work Choices and then threw it in the bin. Progressive, modern businesses work very well with progressive, modern unions and hardworking and committed workers.

I commend the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister on the work they have put into this bill. I note the presence in the chamber today of the member for Maribyrnong and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services and acknowledge his long commitment to representing working men and women. He spoke in caucus—as did other people who have been doing that for a long time—and our Fair Work Bill was very much supported as the right way to go. Furthermore, I commend my colleagues who contributed to the bill through the caucus committee process. The members for Petrie and Deakin in particular put in an enormous effort to deliver fair and just industrial reforms. That is what we on our side of the House do. We consult with all stakeholders and we negotiate, compromise and deliver. That is unlike those opposite, who failed to show adequate respect for workers, unions or business. I had a senior member of the Howard government ministry once say to me off the record that he did not know how bad AWAs were until his daughter brought one home.

In conclusion, this bill is a fair bill; it is a bill that delivers on the promises we made to the Australian people at the last election. It is a modern and progressive industrial reform package. It was done with transparency and full consultation with all stakeholders. It is a bill for all Australians. I congratulate the Your Rights at Work campaigners in Australia on their efforts. In this place we all want to make a difference. I say to those Your Rights at Work campaigners: you have. Australia must never forget the Work Choices legislation and must be reminded—and will be reminded for the next two years—that, if the Liberal Party were to regain government in two years time, Work Choices legislation would be back on the agenda. There are members opposite who continually defend it. They come into this place and they defend it at every opportunity. Some of them believe that it did not go far enough. I think the Australian public need to know that that is what they will face should they decide to reinstate a Liberal government in two years time. They would have to go back to fighting for their rights, fighting for their children’s rights and fighting for their grandchildren’s rights in the workplace. I encourage the Australian public never to give them the opportunity to do that again. I am very proud to commend the bill to the House.

Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to join with my colleagues in support of the Fair Work Bill 2008. And, of course, this bill is the very reason why there are so many new Labor colleagues—and there are three here in the chamber with me right now—in the House. This is the law the Australian people and so many thousands of people in my electorate of Capricornia sent us here to vote for, to enact and to bring into effect in workplaces right around the country. I am very pleased to say that this bill builds on the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Act—enacted by parliament in March—which ended the making of AWAs, introduced a genuine no disadvantage test for agreements and commenced award modernisation. Now this Fair Work Bill goes further and it heralds a new and exciting era of workplace relations for Australia.

It is not only that. This bill puts behind us the former government’s dreaded Work Choices legislation. The Fair Work Bill buries the extreme legislation introduced by the Howard government—introduced in an absolute show of arrogance, without any mandate—and it puts to an end the threats it represented for working families in this country. For example, there was the threat of lower pay and of losing entitlements like penalty rates and overtime. Those are the payments that workers rely on to keep their families afloat financially. There was the threat of losing your job for operational reasons—or, in other words, for any reason at all—or even for no reason if you worked in a business with under 100 employees. There was the threat of being forced onto an AWA, of signing away wages and award conditions without compensation.

For my electorate of Capricornia, I knew what a disastrous toll this would have on families and workers, especially young workers like the ones we heard the member for Solomon describe. It would affect people from hairdressers and childcare workers in town to mining workers in the Bowen Basin. It would spell the demise of workers’ rights while simultaneously knotting red tape around small business. In all, it was a piece of failed legislation from a failed government. Work Choices was rejected by the Australian people at the election last year because it was too extreme. It went too far against the ethos of a fair go, which has defined our national character for over a century.

So it gives me great satisfaction to speak as part of a government that is fulfilling its election commitment to bring back the fair go, to bring back balance into the workplace, to deliver workplace relations reform that is equitable, fair and progressive, and that is what the Fair Work Bill 2008 does. It builds on our policy statement ahead of the election last year, Forward with Fairness. This legislation fulfils our election promise to the Australian people and ratifies the mandate given to us by the public.

The bill delivers fairness and flexibility for Australian workers and their employers and it will also deliver greater productivity and engagement in the workforce at a time when the country needs it the most, at a time when such legislation can act as one of the many important building blocks to protect Australians from the global financial crisis and the economic challenges that we face in the coming months. As the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has already stated, the bill delivers the correct balance between employers and employees. It creates a system that is simple, straightforward and accessible. The contrast with Work Choices is obvious. This new system of workplace relations is set out in a piece of legislation half the size of the Work Choices legislation and without the level of complexity that saw workers and businesses trying to navigate their way around three different authorities and that saw unnecessary interference in the relationship between employers and employees.

I will turn now to some of the key features of the Fair Work Bill. The main thing that I know Australians are looking for us to bring back is a fair and comprehensive safety net of employment conditions that cannot be stripped away. Under this legislation all workers in Australia will be covered by the National Employment Standards. These are legislated minimum standards that cannot be overridden by any other industrial instrument. The National Employment Standards set out 10 minimum standards and include, among other things, maximum weekly hours of work, parental leave, annual leave and long service leave. In addition, those workers earning less than $100,000 per year will have the protection of modern awards. It is important to note that that $100,000 figure will be indexed, and it has to be guaranteed earnings, so it does not include things like overtime or bonuses; it is the salary that you know you will be paid in any given year.

The modern awards will be made by Fair Work Australia on an industry or occupation basis and will provide conditions over a further 10 subject matters—things like minimum wages and classifications, overtime rates, penalty rates, allowances and superannuation. In contrast, Work Choices would have seen awards wither on the vine. We want them to be a robust and relevant part of the safety net. We want them to be reflective of changing community standards and to offer genuine improvements in working conditions. Under our system minimum wages will be adjusted annually and they will be adjusted according to economic and social factors. This is a genuine safety net, the kind of safety net that Work Choices ripped away, leaving workers insecure and ripped off.

Employers can enter into agreements with their employees, whether collective agreements or common-law contracts, but those agreements must leave every employee better off overall than the applicable award and they cannot remove conditions of National Employment Standards and they cannot fall below minimum wages at any time. That is the kind of safety net that people in Australia are looking for and it is what this Fair Work Bill will provide.

Turning now to enterprise bargaining, over and above the safety net there is the opportunity for employers and employees to engage in collective bargaining at the enterprise level, to agree on arrangements that deliver rewards to workers in recognition of productivity improvements. This bill provides a framework for fair bargaining at the enterprise level. One feature of this system is that employers must bargain collectively where a majority of employees want to enter into a bargaining process. That is just logical and fair; no-one could argue with the fairness of that kind of democratic process. Employees’ rights to be represented by their union must be respected.

This system relies on the parties bargaining in good faith, which is what we would expect to happen and what does happen in workplaces right around Australia each and every day. For those instances where good faith bargaining is not taking place, it is possible to go back to the independent umpire, Fair Work Australia, and obtain orders requiring parties to bargain in good faith—again, that is a fair and reasonable requirement of this legislation. Ultimately there is arbitration available where those good faith orders and the penalties attached to them are completely ignored, but, again, in the vast majority of cases that is not going to be the case. There is also multiemployer bargaining available. In those circumstances there is no protected industrial action and no protected action for pattern bargaining. There is the ability, for the first time, for low-paid workers to get the assistance of Fair Work Australia to help them engage in the bargaining system and to get the rewards that they deserve for improved productivity.

Something that I know workers in my electorate will be looking for in this legislation is the return of decent and strong protection from unfair dismissal. Unfair dismissal rights are returned. There are special provisions made for workers in small business, trying to make the system for protecting workers’ rights in those situations simple, accessible and not overly onerous on employers but still making sure that employees have appropriate protection.

There are also enhanced protections from discrimination and for freedom of association. In particular I want to mention that there is now a protection for carers against discrimination. Discrimination involving any conflict between their working role and their caring role is now prohibited. As a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth, which inquired into the role of carers in Australia, I know that measure will be welcomed by people doing that wonderful job for their loved ones.

In conclusion, I remind the House, if we needed reminding, that the lesson of the last election tells us how important it is for governments to get workplace relations right—to make sure that workers are given the opportunity to work with their employers to find ways that they can work smarter and more productively, to find ways to contribute to the success and profitability of the organisation that they work for and for those efforts to be recognised and rewarded through appropriate wages and working conditions. It is government’s job to create a framework that encourages and facilitates that cooperation in workplaces, to underpin the relationship between employers and employees with a strong safety net and to provide a fair and reasonable mechanism to resolve disputes should they occur.

The hundreds of people who attended rallies and the dozens who stuffed envelopes and staffed street stalls in my electorate last year told me that the previous government got it wrong. I want to thank them for their support in the fight against Work Choices. It is in their name that I will be voting for this Fair Work Bill when I get the opportunity.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to make a contribution on this important debate. I am pleased to rise in support of the Fair Work Bill 2008. I want to begin by congratulating the Deputy Prime Minister on the hard work that has gone into getting this bill into this place and also my colleagues on the important work they have done in preparing this legislation. This is a bill that reflects a modern Australia. It is a bill that restores the balance back into Australian workplaces. It is a bill that restores the rights of workers and flexibility for employers. The Fair Work Bill represents the Rudd Labor government delivering on yet another election commitment. This bill delivers on what we promised to the Australian people. They voted for change and a new industrial relations system. They wanted a future for their children and their grandchildren, a future that continues the Australian ethos of a fair go for all.

The Australian people knew that those opposite had gone too far with their successive waves of workplace reform. They knew it was time to put an end to the erosion of their rights. On this side of the House we listened to the Australian people because their concerns were real. They were concerned not only for their own working arrangements but also for their children and grandchildren’s future. They knew that Work Choices had swung the pendulum towards an ideology that did not sit well with them or the majority of Australians. People across the country were not prepared for the intensity of change and those opposite did not even have the courage to put their workplace reform to the Australian people. Work Choices was introduced by stealth.

On 2 November 2005 the then Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, the member for Menzies, introduced the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Bill 2005 into this place. In his speech he said the bill would:

… move Australia towards a flexible, simple and fair workplace relations system.

But we now know that this legislation was not flexible for workers, that it was highly complex and that it was extremely unfair. You only had to count the number of pages of material associated with the bill to gain an understanding of how complex those laws would be. There were 1,252 pages of legislation and 592 pages of explanatory material, regulations and supplementary materials. That is more than 1,800 pages in total.

The legislation was worse than anyone could have imagined. To put it bluntly, Work Choices was an appalling piece of legislation. In the government’s rush to force through their legislation they forgot about the impact it would have on Australian society. It was deceitful how they talked up the so-called ‘benefits’. Australian workers would be better off, they said; Australian workers would have more choice, they said; Australian workers would have better bargaining power, they said. In fact, the opposite was true. Working Australians learnt they would be forced to enter into a new industrial relations landscape that was foreign, complex, unfair and un-Australian. At the same time, their unfair dismissal laws were abolished. Working mums and dads learnt that without rhyme or reason they could be sacked—unfairly dismissed—for no reason or for ‘operational reasons’.

This legislation introduced many Australians to the notorious Australian workplace agreements, or AWAs. We all know about the many AWAs whereby hardworking men and women lost penalty rates, holiday pay, shift allowances and other entitlements that are expected in a fair and reasonable society. AWAs divided workplaces. The safety net that was in place to protect workers on minimum wages was pulled out from under them. They were left to bargain—to negotiate on their own through a complex web of legislation and regulations. Awards were stripped, the ability to enterprise bargain was diminished, AWAs became the preferred option for employment arrangements and the powers of the independent umpire, the Industrial Relations Commission, were reduced immeasurably.

Around 10 months out from the 2007 election, the member for Menzies was replaced as workplace relations minister. It was then up to the member for North Sydney to sell Work Choices. The workplace laws had become somewhat of a lame duck. The Australian people had begun to see through the spin. The Australian people had the common sense and good judgement to understand that those opposite went too far. In fact, even after the election, the member for North Sydney confessed this and admitted to it publicly. One of the biggest mistakes those opposite made was to remove the no disadvantage test. This was a test to ensure that working Australians had access to a solid foundation of rights, that they were not worse off and that they were not exploited.

After five months or so, the alarm bells began to ring in the ears of those opposite. Their response was to drag the Australian people through another ‘tweaking’ of the Work Choices legislation. But they could not bear to bring back the no disadvantage test in its original form, so instead they introduced their so-called ‘fairness test’. At the time there was an immense amount of public pressure to return to some form of safety net, but by this stage it was too late and the Australian people wanted change. Real fairness was what they were after; real fairness is what we promised. Work Choices was soundly rejected on 24 November last year by the Australian people. They gave the Rudd government a mandate to introduce fairness back into the workplace.

One year on, the Rudd government has delivered on that promise made to the Australian people. This is what the Fair Work Bill represents. Our bill is about restoring balance and fairness. It will once again guarantee a safety net of minimum wages and employment conditions that cannot be stripped away. The bill provides a new framework for enterprise bargaining that is based on the notion of good faith bargaining. It provides less regulation regarding content of agreements; there will be a streamlined process for the approval of the agreements. The agreements must also pass the ‘better off overall test’. The Fair Work Bill provides a new scheme of unfair dismissal protections for a vast majority of employees. No longer do employees have to worry about being dismissed for any reason without rights to challenge the dismissal.

There will also be 10 National Employment Standards that cover weekly hours of work, requests for flexible working arrangements, parental leave, annual leave, personal leave, carers leave, compassionate leave, community service leave, long-service leave, public holidays and other matters. The National Employment Standards represent a modern industrial relations system. Compassionate leave has been extended to casual employees, the carers leave provision has been simplified and the number of paid carers leave days is no longer capped at 10 days per year. Reform measures such as these reflect our commitment to modern Australian working families. The new modern awards will cover 10 matters that will come into effect on 1 January 2010. They include minimum wages and classifications, types of employment, arrangements for when work is performed, overtime rates, penalty rates, annualised wages or salary arrangements, allowances, leave related matters and superannuation.

The bill provides for the establishment of Fair Work Australia. Fair Work Australia will act as a one-stop shop for information, advice and assistance on workplace issues by merging the functions currently performed across seven government agencies. Fair Work Australia will set minimum wages. It will have the ability to ensure good faith bargaining. It will be able to deal with industrial action, approve agreements and resolve disputes and matters of unfair dismissal.

It has been interesting to note the words and behaviour of those opposite since the introduction of this bill last week. They began with the Leader of the Opposition saying they would not oppose this bill, but we have learnt to watch what he does, not what he says, when it comes to policy. We have seen the members over there nodding in support of Work Choices and against this legislation. The truth we know is that the Liberal Party is still full of Work Choices believers and, if given half a chance, they would reintroduce it—or worse. They are not convincing the Australian public with their empty words, but rather people are watching and waiting on their actions.

I call on those opposite to support the millions of working Australian people who have proudly defended and earned their rights for more than a century. I call on those opposite to support this bill. This bill returns a balance to the industrial relations system that both protects Australian workers and provides flexibility for employers. I am proud of this bill and I know that many working families living in my seat of Franklin will be pleased that fairness and balance have been returned to their workplaces. I commend this bill to the House.

Chris Trevor (Flynn, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the Fair Work Bill 2008. I do so with a great sense of pride. Of all the speeches I have delivered to this parliament in the past 12 months—and there have been many—this is the bill, this is the legislation, this is the fairness that I wanted to see introduced and passed by this parliament. This is the bill that restores balance and fairness back into the workplace, and this is the bill that the majority of my community, the Flynn electorate, voted for at the last federal election.

Defending workers’ rights has been the cornerstone of my existence and is the main reason why I am standing here today delivering this speech to federal parliament as the first ever federal member for Flynn. In 1996, frustrated with the way in which workers’ rights were being handled, I joined the Australian Labor Party to have a strong voice for them. Some 10 years later, I ran for and nearly won the seat of Gladstone, obtaining a swing of approximately 10 per cent on the back of standing up for my community and for workers’ rights. That was in 2006. Shortly after that election was done and dusted, I gave an interview to the Australian newspaper warning the then Howard federal coalition government that workers’ rights were very much a live issue. The then federal coalition government, in its wisdom, chose to ignore that advice.

In early 2007, when the now Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, asked me to run for the seat of Flynn, it was an easy decision. Apart from the fact that I believed that he would make a great leader, and he has, and apart from the fact that I wanted to deliver for my community, and I have, I dearly wanted to be part of a government that would get rid of that insidious piece of legislation, Work Choices—and we will. Some six months before the federal election, I took out an ad in the local newspapers. I have a copy of it in front of me. The title for all to see reads:

I suspect that the history books will show that in 2007 the great Australian tradition of mates sticking up for mates was still very much alive and well in Australia and that fairness in the workplace was paramount to preserve the dignity of the human spirit.

The rest is history. Mates did speak up for mates, and the Labor Party stuck up for workers.

This bill delivers on Labor’s promises to sweep away Work Choices and to replace it with a fair workplace relations system. This legislation is about preservation of the dignity of the human spirit. When you strip away basic work entitlements like the previous government did, you tear away at the very heart of the human spirit. You take away from people their dignity, their self-respect, their honour, their pride, their ability to look after their partner and their ability to look after their children. That is what the Liberal-National Party did. The basic, fundamental right of a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay was not something the Liberal-National Party had a right to take—it belonged to our forefathers who built this great nation of ours and fought so hard for fairness—yet the Liberal-National Party did. They sought to turn the clock back 100 years, to turn our great nation back to the serfs and the bourgeoisie, and they paid for their obnoxious behaviour at the ballot box. The last thing the working people of Flynn need is another Liberal-National Party government in the future reintroducing Work Choices, or a Liberal-National Party member of parliament who believes in taking away people’s basic rights at work, their power of flight, their dignity and their self-respect.

This legislation takes us forward with fairness, something Labor promised to do and has done with this legislation. It vindicates and gives acknowledgement and thanks to all those who believed in Your Rights at Work: Worth Fighting For—for themselves, for their mates, for the children and for the grandchildren of Australia. To those who manned the booths for Your Rights at Work and for Labor in Flynn and who believed in a fair go: thank you. The Rudd Labor government has now returned the favour; it has honoured your hard work and commitment to a fair go.

This bill supports employees, families, businesses and the economy. As we know, the Liberal-National Party’s extreme Work Choices laws took away workers’ basic rights at work. The Liberal-National Party government, through Work Choices, removed conditions from awards, kept minimum wages low, used individual contracts to undercut rights, kept fair representation by unions out of workplaces, reduced workers’ bargaining rights, slashed unfair dismissal laws, reduced the powers of the independent umpire and allowed the great divide between the rich and the poor to grow even wider. The Work Choices legislation was unjust, unfair, harsh, unconscionable and un-Australian. Today this legislation, our legislation for Forward with Fairness introduced by the Rudd Labor government, sends a clear message to all Australians that when the going gets tough you will be glad that you have got Labor on your side. The Rudd Labor government promised to the Australian people it would deliver and it has now delivered.

The bill, among other things, delivers on the government’s commitment to establish a new and independent industrial umpire. It also delivers a fair and comprehensive safety net of minimum employment conditions; a system that has, at its very heart, bargaining in good faith at the enterprise level; protection from unfair dismissal for all employees; protection for the low paid; the ability to balance work and family life; and the right to be represented in the workplace.

Today is a great day for the mums and dads of Australia. Today is a great day for our kids and the kids of the future. No longer will workers be crushed under the Liberal-National Party’s extreme ideology. Today is a bad day for the Liberal-National Party opposition and those greedy individuals and companies who ripped off workers under Work Choices because of greed or simply because they could. Greed is that infectious and insidious disease that was supported by the Liberal-National Party government and struck at the very heart of fairness for working families, and that now has culminated in the global financial crisis that threatens our very existence.

Today is a good day for working people, for those who give of their labour and just expect fair wages and a fair go in return. Shame on the Liberal-National Party government who put greed in front of the dignity of the human spirit. I congratulate the Rudd Labor government, of which I am proud to be a member standing here today, for its outstanding leadership on fairness in the workplace. I commend this bill to the House.

Kerry Rea (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Along with my colleagues, most recently the member for Flynn, I too rise to support the Fair Work Bill 2008, the very significant piece of legislation that we are discussing in the parliament today. Next week, on 10 December, the whole world will celebrate and acknowledge the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a declaration made in 1948 and seen as one of the most significant documents that the international community has produced, possibly in living history and certainly in recent history. As we know, the Hon. Dr Evatt, a former Australian Attorney-General and significant legal and political leader in this country, was at the forefront of the signing of that declaration. Article 23 of that declaration says:

(1)

Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2)

Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3)

Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

(4)

Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

It is such a shame that the previous government, when drafting some of the most draconian and extreme industrial relations legislation this country has ever seen, completely forgot or ignored article 23, an article that we as a nation have committed to for the past 60 years. It was thrown out for the Australian people when the Workplace Relations Bill and the Work Choices amendments were introduced into this parliament.

I am very proud to be elected to become a member of a government that has always acknowledged the significance of that particular article and to finally see in this parliament a restoration of the individual human rights of the working people of Australia as enshrined in the Fair Work Bill. I am very proud to be a supporter of the Deputy Prime Minister, whose hard work, whose incredible attention to detail and whose ability to negotiate but ultimately come up with good, balanced outcomes has seen this bill come to the parliament just 12 months since the election of the Rudd Labor government. I pay tribute to her and my parliamentary colleagues who have been involved in the drafting of this bill.

We acknowledge the article and the words contained in it, which are a very eloquent and beautiful description of the rights of working people. I think the essence of what that article represents, and indeed what the Fair Work Bill restores, is that industrial relations and our industrial relations policies should not just value work; they should value workers. That is exactly what the Fair Work Bill does. It acknowledges that working people, those who labour to earn an income, are not just another cost measure in the profit-and-loss statements of a company, they are actually people who contribute significantly to the industrial, economic and social progress of this country. Individual people who work and are employed are people who deserve the dignity that goes with that employment, who deserve proper remuneration and who deserve to be acknowledged as valuable members of this community and not just as another unit cost in the balance sheet of various companies.

In the current climate, where we face one of the most significant global financial crises that this country has seen for many years, once again we appreciate that workers are not just there to add to the profit margin of a company. They are actually there as members of a community. They go out and spend, educate their children and buy goods and services. So a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay is not just about acknowledging that individual contribution but is very important for the continued progress and growth of an economy. We cannot concentrate all the wealth in a small section of the economy and expect our overall economy to grow. We need to ensure that all people within this country have sufficient means and income to purchase what they need to manage their daily lives, to do things like go on holidays and go out to restaurants and to buy takeaways and watch the occasional DVD—the means to buy the things that they enjoy as much as to simply cover their daily living expenses.

We know that governments across the world at this very point in time are all looking at ways in which they can stimulate spending within their domestic economies in order to buffer themselves against the current financial crisis. The Australian government under the leadership of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has led the way in acknowledging that if you in fact boost spending within the country—if you provide a stimulus package that gives working families and people on fixed and low incomes the means to continue to purchase the goods and services that they need—that money goes around and benefits all of us in terms of ensuring continued growth and productivity.

What I think is most important about the Fair Work Bill is that it does not just acknowledge the value of workers and their right to a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. It is a bill that once again restores protection to the workers in this country who are most vulnerable. We all acknowledge that there are varying degrees of skill within the workforce and varying degrees of income. No matter how lowly skilled or low-paid a job may be, every worker in this country is vital to ensuring that we all continue to enjoy the prosperity that we do. So it is very important that a government, through an industrial relations policy and through its laws, should protect those that are most vulnerable. We see in this bill the introduction of a real safety net, a genuine safety net, through the National Employment Standards. We see in this bill the right to bargain for those workers, even those on the lowest incomes and in the most vulnerable employment. For the first time they not only are protected by minimum standards but actually have the right to bargain collectively to improve their employment conditions and their rights at work.

An independent umpire is once again established with sufficient teeth to mediate and resolve disputes. This restores collective bargaining and good faith bargaining. No longer do we have a piece of legislation that is a mere sham when it talks about protecting the rights of those who are employed. No longer do we have legislation that pays lip-service to the importance of protecting everyone in the workforce, including those most vulnerable. We now have legislation that restores those legal rights with genuine requirements for mediation, for dispute resolution, for collective bargaining and for the protection of people on low incomes and in vulnerable jobs.

In the time that I have got left, I acknowledge that this legislation has come about as a result of an election commitment by the Rudd Labor government, and we have delivered. I also acknowledge the incredible community campaign that was run by the Your Rights at Work people throughout this country. Whilst the opposition has used the opportunity of this debate simply to bash unions and argue that this is somehow a piece of legislation to gain union power, it is actually a piece of legislation that acknowledges the groundswell of community opposition that existed under the previous legislation. It acknowledges that the people of Australia, through the Your Rights at Work campaign and ultimately through the ballot box, said that those draconian laws were unfair, attacked the very essence of the Australian spirit and did not reflect community attitudes towards work and the right to employment that people had previously enjoyed.

I am very pleased that through the Your Rights at Work campaign, particularly in my electorate of Bonner, the Australian people across the nation said: ‘This is enough—no more! We will support this campaign because the values and the principles that are espoused about a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, the right to collectively bargain, the right to be represented by a union and the right to restore fairness and balance to industrial negotiations and disputes are an essential part of the Australian way of life, and that is what we will support.’ So I want to put on record my congratulations to that community campaign. It was successful in electing a Labor government. But, more so, it was successful in restoring industrial justice to this country and to this parliament. I commend the bill.

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

It is with an immense amount of pride that I rise to speak in support of the Fair Work Bill 2008. I say that because in all the time that I have belonged to the Australian Labor Party—and I joined on 11 November 1975—I have never been more proud of my party than I am today. This has been an extraordinary first year in government for the Labor Party. From the first-ever welcome to country that was extended to the parliamentarians here and the apology on the opening day of parliament through to the introduction of this bill, this Labor government has set about delivering on the commitments it made during the election campaign. It has been establishing the future of this country—a fair and equitable future for everybody—through, in particular, the education revolution and something that we had not anticipated at the time of the election but that has taken a lot of our time: combating the global financial crisis.

There have been many speeches preceding mine on this bill and, if I may be so bold as to introduce a little bit of modern culture, I will quote from the Carole King song So Far Away and say:

One more song about movin’ along the highway,

Can’t say much of anything that’s new …

So it is with this speech; there is not a lot to be said. Members have canvassed the content of this bill very well. I would refer readers of my speech who want to find a really good explanation of this bill to the speech by the member for Charlton, Mr Combet, who has more than a little interest in the delivery of this legislation by the government.

This bill is the Australian working person’s emancipation from the latter-day serfdom that was imposed upon them by the coalition’s Work Choices legislation. We know that in feudal society serfs had a particular and specific place, and the legislation that this bill abolishes sought to do that with working Australians. This has been a long time in the making, and I have been particularly scornful over the years of the diminution of the relationship between working people and their employers. It started out that companies, in their dealings with the staff, did so through a department called the staff department, which then disintegrated into something impersonal called the personnel department and then something that I believe is quite inhumane called human resources. I think that members opposite, many large employers and, unfortunately, some small employers do not understand today that the job that they provide for a working person is that person’s vehicle for their aspirations for a better life for themselves and for their families. That job provides for them not only their food and shelter but their education: the future of a whole range of people whom this country needs to have properly and beneficially developed if it is to meet future challenges well.

There is absolutely no doubt, it is very clear, that the Labor government has a mandate for this legislation, despite what members opposite might say during their presentations on this bill. No lesser authority than the member for North Sydney, Mr Hockey, who, as the outgoing Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, on 28 November 2007 was quoted in one of our august journals as having said:

Labor has an undeniable, overwhelming mandate to abolish Work Choices.

Of course, the member for North Sydney is not the only member opposite to have expressed similar sentiments. For example, I believe just yesterday that in the course of a personal explanation the member for Fisher, in correcting what he says was an erroneous report in a newspaper, was able to inform the House that in his view Labor’s mandate to abolish Work Choices should be respected. So we have an overwhelming mandate, in the view of the member for North Sydney, that should be respected, in the view of the member for Fisher, who is my neighbour in Queensland. Also, earlier in this debate the member for Mayo made a few comments. The member for Mayo’s DNA was all over the Work Choices legislation in a previous capacity as an adviser to the former Prime Minister. He had this to say:

… at least on this matter they put out a detailed policy, which is largely reflected in the bill before the House.

…            …            …

Labor is entitled to move the bill to ensure its commitments are met.

In contrast, of course, the member for Bendigo, in his contribution, and many others pointed out the fact that the introduction of the Work Choices legislation into this parliament happened without any mandate having been received.

The introduction of this bill gives cause to some lines from another popular song of the sixties: Little Red Rooster, written by Willie Dixon:

… the dogs begin to bark,

And the hounds,

They begin to howl …

That is what is happening from the members opposite, and I want the people of Australia to read the contributions made by the members oppositie and to understand that a return to a coalition in this country will of necessity bring a return to the Work Choices legislation. They are Work Choices true believers. They are industrial fairness deniers. For example, if we were to look at the contribution made by the member for Kalgoorlie—now remember what the member for North Sydney and the member for Fisher said about the mandate—we would see that he describes this mandate as ‘perceived’ or ‘supposed’. The member for Kalgoorlie is a denier that there is a mandate to do anything all.

The member for Cowan indicated in his contribution to this legislation—and it was something that was said by many members, so I guess it is a little bit unfair to pick him out—that members opposite reserve the right to make amendments to the bill before the House. They reserve the right—I have never heard anything more ludicrous. They spent a whole term in government taking rights away from working Australians and they reserve the right for themselves to make amendments to the legislation that restores those rights to people. That is absolutely ludicrous, and they stand condemned for thinking that right is there for them.

Of course, the ministerial architect of Work Choices was the member for Menzies. He had to make a contribution, and that contribution was particularly illuminating. The member for Menzies initially chose to criticise organisations representing businesses in this country when he said:

Many small and medium businesses will come to see that they have been poorly served by those who lead their organisations.

And what had those who led their organisations done to deserve that from the member for Menzies? They said, ‘This is reasonable legislation and it should be passed.’ So said business organisations in this country. The member for Menzies went on to say:

Those who continue to believe in the individual and the national benefits of economic freedom will have to rejoin the struggle.

Which struggle might that be? The struggle to reintroduce Work Choices, I suggest, is what the member for Menzies is talking about. Being mindful of the time, I will just say that in November 2007 the people decided, and they decided that the member for Menzies was not the Messiah; he was just a very naughty boy.

Debate (on motion by Ms Roxon) adjourned.