Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation. Will the minister outline what the government is doing to make sure that all workers in Australian workplaces are treated fairly and humanely?

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

I thank the member for Parramatta for her question and her ongoing interest in what is fair for Australian workers. Labor stands up every day for people who go to work. Labor believes in cooperative, profitable, productive, flexible and fair workplaces. Labor believes that you always need a strong safety net at work. We reject the idea that a person, regardless of where that person comes from, should be allowed to be exploited at work.

I am pleased to report to the House the hard work of the Fair Work Ombudsman last year. In 2012, 12,000 workers submitted complaints of underpayment of a total of $33 million of wages. That was fixed. In other words, despite the conservative myth-making opposite, people go to work and get ripped off.

In particular, what may be of interest to the member for Parramatta is that in 2011-12 there were 994 complaints from people working on temporary visas about exploitation at work. In fact, I can update the House that in the first half of 2012-13 there have been 900 complaints already. Indeed, I can inform the member for Parramatta that some of the complaints—some of the examples—include Fijian workers, marine labourers, working on barge refitting in the Port of Adelaide working seven days a week and not getting paid; and an Indian restaurant worker in Perth, who was in Australia on a temporary visa, working for four months, not being paid, and having to make an adverse action for unfair dismissal, as well as being subject to workplace bullying.

I know that no-one in the House would condone any of those examples, but today what our Prime Minister has said, what the Minister for Immigration has said and what I have said is that we want to give the Fair Work Ombudsman more jurisdiction to deal with the real problems that are occurring rather than allowing the loopholes to occur. That is what we will do. We will stand up for Australians who go to work and ensure that they get fairness wherever they are. That is why we voted for the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal. That is why we voted for a system to give equal pay to women in the community services sector. That is why we voted to increase superannuation from nine per cent to 12 per cent. That is why we voted to ensure the Fair Entitlements Guarantee. Every time there is a debate about fairness at work, the government votes in favour of fairness and those opposite vote against it.

I also happen to think it is not fair for people who go to work when the opposition play small-target politics because they are too scared to talk about workplace relations. Their suggestion for workplace relations is to refer it off to the Productivity Commission for report in 2016. That is not fair and there are no medals for policy bravery for the small-target opposition.