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

I have recently learned that QBE is cutting 700 jobs in Australia and offshoring those jobs to Manila. The functions to be transferred to the Philippines include workers compensation claims, motor vehicle claims and reinsurance administration. A large number of these roles are carried out in my electorate of Parramatta. Already, 73 claims roles in the Parramatta offices were declared redundant at the beginning of March. That is 73 Parramatta families without their breadwinner and 73 Australian workers whose hard work gets rewarded with the sack as QBE chases short-term profits. These are good jobs, highly skilled jobs, unexpectedly lost. I say 'unexpectedly' because, in spite of rumours of cuts for quite some time and despite the requirement in the enterprise agreement that QBE advise the Finance Sector Union of proposed job cuts, QBE has kept their plans a secret.

Many of the jobs that have been offshored to the Philippines are jobs that most of us would think of as state government jobs. QBE provides workers compensation services for the New South Wales government. They are not low-skill jobs; they are high-skill jobs that require training—and, I might add, an understanding of the Australian workplace and culture. In fact, 46 of the jobs that will be offshored are about assessing workers compensation claims: a worker is injured in Granville; the claim will be processed in Manila.

The O'Farrell government has questions to answer about this one. These are jobs undertaken for the New South Wales government, for people within Australia, and they should be performed by Australians right here. I call on the O'Farrell government to intervene to protect these important jobs and protect the quality of service within our workers compensation system, a system on which Australians rely on what can be the worst days of their lives: the day they are injured at work.

I have spoken many times in my electorate about the potential for our financial services sector in our growing region. We stand at a point in history with the rapid emergence of our region as a global economic force. The increasing availability of high-speed broadband, both in Australia and through the region, makes us closer than ever before. Australians have the professional skills, the language skills and the cultural understanding that are key to our business relationships with our Asian neighbours. Vodafone is bringing 750 offshored jobs in call centres back to Australia, in a 'virtual call centre', thanks to the development of the NBN and their desire to differentiate their level of service to Australian customers. We see 1,000 doctors and nurses working from their homes around the country for the Medibank after-hours line.

High-speed broadband changes things. It makes things possible, and it makes it possible for us as a nation to expand our range of services in neighbouring countries. Australia can and should be one of the great financial service centres of the world. Australia can become a great exporter of services to the world, and I want to see workers in Parramatta enjoying the benefits of those jobs. But opportunity is a double-edged sword. Over the next few years we will either grasp the opportunities with both hands and grow into new markets, or we will take the lazy option and grow corporate profits simply by cutting wages, in this case by transferring jobs to a low-wage economy.

It is hard to see the QBE decision as anything other than the low road, protecting profit at the expense of a very loyal workforce, taking the easy option and, in doing so, missing out on the extraordinary potential that is our region, bolstering profits in Australia by withdrawing support for Australian workers and offshoring what is essentially a government service. It is just plain wrong, and I urge QBE to reconsider. I urge the O'Farrell government to see its responsibility to the Australians who will lose their jobs delivering the services for an Australian state government to fellow Australians.