Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to acknowledge the hard work of the Parliament House cleaners. They do work very hard to ensure that we have a clean and safe work space. But, Deputy Speaker, as you may know, this week our cleaners are taking industrial action, and they are taking industrial action because this government is refusing to meet with them to discuss workload and pay issues.

The Parliament House cleaners have not received a pay rise for three years—in fact, many are calling it a pay freeze—and that is because this government, on one of its big red tape repeal days, scrapped the Commonwealth Cleaning Services Guidelines. That was a set of standards and a framework in which the cleaning company here at Parliament House, as in all other Commonwealth buildings, could bargain for a fair and reasonable pay outcome, and the government would pay it. That has not happened. This government, on one of its big red tape repeal days, scrapped those guidelines, so the cleaners, in fear of having their pay cut, have taken industrial action.

That should not have to happen. It should not come to this. People around Parliament House will see there are wheelie bins. These bins are there for us to dump our own rubbish, and I am sure many people are doing that, because nobody wants a dirty office, but it should not come to this. Workers only take industrial action when their jobs are on the line or when they are facing a pay cut. What we have seen happen at other Commonwealth government departments is that the cleaners have had up to a $6,000-a-year pay cut. That is a lot of money for somebody on a small income to lose. The cleaners who clean the Foreign Affairs building have had a pay cut of $6,000. It is simply not fair.

Yet what we saw yesterday, rather than a commitment to sit down with these hardworking cleaners or the government's own employees—people who are members of the CPSU and work in Customs—and talk genuinely about their workplace issues, was the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection using question time to berate, belittle and attack them. This is not sensible leadership. This is not what we expect from employers. The government should be a model employer. They should demonstrate good faith bargaining by engaging with their workforce—sitting down and genuinely bargaining a fair agreement. Customs officers, like the cleaners, are taking industrial action because this government is trying to cut their pay. It is trying to cut their penalty rates and their take-home pay. Workers take industrial action only when they are under this level of attack. I call on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to be true to his word and meet with the cleaners and his workforce.