Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Financial Services and Superannuation. How is the government promoting fairness in Australian workplaces and, with all the job cuts announced by state governments in front-line education and health services this week, what risks are there to fairness in our workplaces?

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Greenway for her question. The Labor government and the labour movement are always striving to promote fairness in Australian workplaces. To support that proposition, I would submit that it is this government which has been in office during the creation of 800,000 jobs, that it is this government which is educating and training our young for the future, that it is this government which is remedying unequal pay for women in the community services sector, that it is this government which wants safe roads and which is acting to make sure that truck drivers return home safe at the end of their rostered work, that it is this government which is delivering secure retirement incomes by increasing superannuation from nine per cent to 12 per cent, that it is this government which has abolished discrimination against older workers in access to superannuation and that it is this government which is scrapping superannuation taxes for the low paid. But this is not a government which seeks to dump the blame for the challenges of the national economy on the backs of 1.8 million public sector workers.

Fairness in Australian workplaces can never be taken for granted. It must be jealously guarded. We must be vigilant against threats to fairness. But fairness in Australian workplaces is under attack today. Let us have a look at those Liberal state governments—they are not a looming risk to fairness; that risk is a reality. Every patient, every student, every family is affected by the cuts to public sector jobs in Australian workplaces. The state Liberal chainsaw job massacre is underway. We know you cannot have fairness for public sector workers while they are being maligned by this view that, if we could just get rid of tens of thousands of public sector workers, miraculously the nation would be a better place.

Let me unpack who some of these public servants being attacked are. There are 600 transit officers in New South Wales being cut. What did they ever do to deserve a Liberal attack?

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Voted Labor!

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the Queensland rural fire service, 45 out of 79 uniformed officers are being cut. What a recipe for disaster to cut fire officers before what is potentially one of Queensland's worst bushfire seasons! What did the public servants who are on maternity leave in Victoria ever do to be told by Premier Baillieu—'Red Ted' Baillieu—that they have to reapply for their own jobs?

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will withdraw the reference to the Premier. It was unparliamentary.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw. But what did the nurses in Townsville ever do to deserve Premier Newman cutting their jobs? What did the hospital orderlies and the school cleaners and the people necessary to make sure we have healthy hospitals do? Fairness in Australia is under attack because of conservative state governments. I only have one challenge for those opposite: will you endorse what they are doing or will you walk away from it? Are the state governments really the warm-up act for your industrial relations approach or do you disown the bungling? (Time expired)

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker: during the minister's answer, when he asked, rhetorically, what various people had done to deserve getting the sack, the member for Hughes yelled across the chamber, 'Voted Labor'.

Honourable members interjecting—

And he is confirming that now. That is offensive—that orderlies and working-class people should be sacked for voting Labor.

I find it incredibly offensive, as does everyone—not just on this side of the House but also, I would have thought, on that side of the House—to say, 'It's okay to be sacked if you voted Labor,' and I ask that he withdraw.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hughes will withdraw for the assistance of the House. For the benefit of the parliament—

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hughes.