Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand here against this antiworker government and their agenda. As the member for Moreton said previously, him and I sat with a couple members of the metalworkers' union recently and heard about this Esso dispute. For more than 652 days—in fact, 652 days, 12 hours and 31 minutes—these workers have been on a picket line. They had a new enterprise agreement, signed by five people who weren't offshore workers at that time, which has now bound up these members on the picket line. They have had their agreement slashed by 30 per cent, annual leave reduced and conditions reduced. Let's call it out for what it is: this is a sham contract.

But this government doesn't just stop at supporting sham contracting. Let's talk about penalty rates: 11,000 people in the Moreton Bay region had their penalty rates cut. What about labour hire? What are they doing about labour hire? They are standing by. This is an antiworker government standing by, letting labour hire rip apart the wages and income of working people in this country and ripping apart families. This is unacceptable—652 days for these Esso workers! Guess what their parent company, Exxon Mobile, are paying in tax. It is zero dollars.