Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the challenge of joblessness and poverty in Australia. This week is Anti-Poverty Week, and many community organisations are doing their best to help tackle the scourge of social disadvantage in Australia and to help reduce the rate of child poverty, which is too high in Australia. There is, however, a difference in the philosophy that the two sides of parliament take towards joblessness. Those on the conservative side are more likely to refer to jobseekers as 'leaners' and to criticise them for not trying hard enough. We on the progressive side of politics recognise that the unemployment rate is, to a large extent, a function of the number of jobs that are available. If you go to Britain or to Germany or to the United States or to New Zealand, you'll find an unemployment rate that is around four per cent. That's the unemployment rate that the Reserve Bank of Australia thinks is possible in Australia and which would be consistent with starting to get wages growing again and starting to get inflation moving back into the target band. Yet, in Australia, we have a government that seems comfortable with an unemployment rate that sits above five per cent and has done so throughout the period in which the government has been in office. That means that there are hundreds of thousands of Australians who, if we had the same unemployment rate as the countries I've named—Britain, New Zealand, the United States and Germany—would have a job, but in Australia do not.

There are other consequences of unemployment being too high. When unemployment is too high it means that we don't get wage growth. Over the past six years, real wages have grown at just 0.7 per cent a year. In the six years before that, which was a period spanning the global financial crisis, real wages grew at 1.8 per cent annually. We've seen a significant wages slowdown, and part of that's been due to poor productivity, declining union membership rates, wage theft scandals, penalty rates and Public Service wage caps.

We need more action in order to reduce the unemployment rate. When the unemployment rate comes down, it becomes more difficult for employers to indulge in racist or sexist discrimination. It is harder to be a discriminatory employer when there is more competition in the labour market. When the unemployment rate is low, people with disabilities and new migrants are more likely to be able to find a job. When the unemployment rate is low, you get pressure on wages—that pressure which the Reserve Bank governor has acknowledged is sorely needed, which has been highlighted in reports from the OECD and the International Monetary Fund. Independent reports from Deloitte have highlighted the problems in the Australian economy and the fact that those problems are, to a large extent, homegrown. Yet the government seems to be stubbornly sticking to its talking points, pretending as though we don't have a joblessness problem in Australia.

The fact is that, for every available job in Australia, there are four people looking for work. For every job opening, there are four people looking for work.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:19 to 11 : 40

In South Australia, there are nine jobseekers competing for each available job. In Tasmania, there are 14 jobseekers competing for every available job. Research by Anglicare Australia Network has found a decline in the share of jobs that did not require qualifications and did not require work experience. In 2006, 22 per cent of jobs were available to someone with no qualifications and no work experience. Now, just 10 per cent of vacancies don't require qualifications or work experience. For low-skilled Australians, there are fewer opportunities than ever before.

In the context of Anti-Poverty Week, it's worth acknowledging too some of the recent findings on inequality and disadvantage. The International Monetary Fund in a recently released report looked at the gap between well-off regions and struggling regions across 22 countries. Australia was ranked fourth-worst behind only the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic and Canada for the gap between our best off and worst off regions. If you take countries such as Japan and France, which have small regional gaps, the richest areas are about 35 per cent better off than the poorest. But in Australia, our richest areas, parts of Sydney and Melbourne, are at least twice as well off as poorer areas such as regional Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The research has found that the gap between rich and poor was growing between regions, as we have seen inequality grow more broadly for Australia and across advanced countries.

A report by Alvis Consulting on behalf of the St Vincent de Paul Society looked at electricity disconnections and found that too had been increasing. That is no surprise, given that we know that energy costs for households have been rising significantly, due in part to the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government's lack of an energy policy. They found when they adjusted disconnections for population, that the postcodes that had the highest number of disconnections were those that were more disadvantaged. Populations in rural areas, with more older Australians, low-income communities, were more likely to have the electricity cut off. This has massive impacts for households and can have damaging impacts, particularly for children in those households. When the power is cut off, food spoils, families aren't able to do the washing and kids aren't able to do their homework at night. So electricity disconnections are a manifestation of the social disadvantage that we see in Australia.

We need to get the wages going again. We need to get employment going again. One of the challenges of getting wages going is constraints on job mobility. Simple economics tells us that if you have a dozen wage offers, you are more likely to get a higher wage than if you're stuck with a single option. That's why people in big cities tend to earn more than those stuck in one-company towns. It's why employees who move firms get a bigger pay bump than those who stay put.

Last year, Princeton economists Alan Krueger and Orley Ashenfelter uncovered a disturbing way that the United States firms had prevented job switching, and that was clauses in franchise agreements that made it hard for workers to move between outlets in the same chain. When they looked at a database of franchise agreements, fully 58 per cent of franchise agreements contained so-called 'no-poach' clauses—clauses which barred franchisees from enticing workers to change stores. That included US franchise chains Burger King, Jiffy Lube and H&R Block.

I was intrigued by these findings, so I wrote to some of the largest Australian franchises to ask whether their standard agreements included no-poach clauses. It turned out that at least three did: McDonald's, Bakers Delight and Domino's wrote back to me to say that their standard clauses prevent franchisees from hiring workers who were working at other stores. Let me read to the House the text of the agreement that McDonald's franchisees must sign up to. It says:

Neither Licensee nor Principal shall employ or seek to employ any person who is at the time employed by McDonald's or by Licensor or by any of the subsidiaries or associated or related companies of McDonald's or Licensor or by any person who is at the time operating a McDonald's restaurant, or otherwise induce, or attempt to induce, directly or indirectly, such person to leave such employment.

It's a complicated clause with a simple impact for McDonald's workers: they can't get poached away for a better wage by another chain. That puts downward pressure on the wages of workers at McDonald's, a significant employer in the Australian labour market.

I have to give credit to McDonald's, Bakers Delight and Domino's, who at least replied to my request as to whether their franchise agreements contained no-poach clauses. Two franchises—Subway and 7-Eleven—said their agreements did not, but we don't have the necessary details to know what other franchises do. But we do know that franchising accounts for a significant portion of the economy. According to a report from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, franchising accounts for nine per cent of the Australian economy.

We also know that job switching has declined markedly. Treasury's research shows that the rate of job switching has declined by about a third since the start of the century. None of this is to blame workers, but the research by the late Alan Krueger and Orley Ashenfelter, and my own findings for Australia, suggest that structural forces are moving against workers—that no-poach clauses are one way in which downward pressure is placed on wages by impediments on workers moving firms.

I call on those franchise chains—McDonald's, Bakers Delight and Domino's—to scrap no-poach clauses. Following the release of the Krueger and Ashenfelter research in the United States, state attorneys-general began investigating whether no-poach clauses were anticompetitive. Very quickly, a number of US franchise chains announced that they would scrap no-poach clauses, but that has not yet occurred in Australia. These chains—and, potentially, others—have no-poach clauses at the moment, which means that tens of thousands of employees are affected. The three chains I mentioned—McDonald's, Bakers Delight and Domino's—have between them over 2,000 franchise stores, and are significant employers of low-skilled labour.

We should also shine a spotlight on franchise agreements elsewhere. It is not appropriate to 21st-century transparency that standard franchise agreements are kept secret. To the extent that they bar employees from starting a competing firm and to the extent that they bar employers from hiring workers from another franchise chain, we need better oversight of what these franchise agreements say. Healthy competition for workers is good for wages, and if we want to get more rapid wage growth then we need more opportunities for workers to seek out a better-paying job. These chains should do the right thing immediately, and should get rid of these clauses from their agreements. I promise to them that if they do not, I shall continue raising the issue in this place.

I turn finally to the issue of poverty and disadvantage right here in the ACT. Outsiders often think of Canberra as being a city without poverty, but that is far from the truth. In the ACT the winters are cold, and housing affordability can be a challenge, so it's a tough place to be without a job and a tough place to need more income support. I held a roundtable with heads of a range of local community sector organisations on 4 October. I thank representatives of ACOSS, YWCA, Volunteering ACT, MARSS, Vinnies, Companion House, Anglicare and GIVIT for joining me for that important conversation. We discussed the issues of overlapping disadvantage, challenges around disability and incarceration, and the way in which housing affects so many other aspects of the lives of low-income Canberrans. There is a recognition among these organisations of the need to innovate.

On 8 October I held another breakfast with young social entrepreneurs. I thank C Moore, Ashleigh Streeter-Jones, Caitlin Figueiredo, Josh Gonzalez, Jarret Anthoney, Julia Faragher, Sophie Fisher, Nip Wijewickrema, Dhani Gilbert, and Jenna Allen for joining me for that conversation. It was focused on what philanthropically funded organisations can do to target poverty and disadvantage and how these organisations can fill gaps that may emerge in social disadvantage. The work that's been done by Jenna Allen for the Take One, Leave One project, recognises that in a cold winter it is important to provide low-income people and homeless people with a coat that they feel comfortable in, that they will be proud to wear, that will keep them warm on a cold Canberra night. The work that Sophie Fisher does with Girls on Bikes ACT recognises that, particularly for migrant communities, it is important to provide bicycles and learn-to-ride lessons to be a part of the Canberra community, a city with as many bike paths as any other part of Australia. So the work that is being done by these social entrepreneurs makes us a stronger and more connected community.

Finally, I must conclude with a plug. For the last decade, Vinnies ACT has been coming to this building to hold a barbecue. This was an event auspiced by Jenny Macklin, the former member for Jagajaga. With her departure from the parliament at the last election, I have taken over the coordination of the Vinnies barbecue, which this year will be held on 5 December. We would welcome to the Vinnies barbecue any members of parliament, their staff and the press gallery. Joining us at the Vinnies barbecue on 5 December is a simple way of showing that you want to help deal with poverty in the Canberra community. It's a way of showing your commitment to social justice and a way to get a photo with Father Christmas, to enjoy a sandwich with parliamentary colleagues and to turn a snag on the barbecue with the great Vinnies volunteers. The Vinnies barbecue will be supported too by the members for Bean and Canberra and by Senator Gallagher. It is a terrific community event in which the Vinnies workers in Canberra come into the parliament. We make a modest donation, and they serve us a terrific sausage sandwich lunch to get us through that final sittings week. Come along and join us in the usual courtyard. Do your bit to show your commitment to building a stronger, more socially connected Canberra and to a great community organisation in Vinnies.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's my honour to rise in the chamber and to respond to the Governor-General's speech. Can I say at the outset how deeply honoured I am to be returned as the member for Wright, representing an electorate that is arguably one of the most diverse in our nation. In the north, we have the Lockyer Valley—a soil-rich region that is feeding not only this country but also many other countries around the world. In the east are the western suburbs of Logan, which is home to some of the most multiculturally diverse communities and which is experiencing rapid growth, with emerging populations and the old townships adapting to those changes. In the south is the beautiful Scenic Rim, enclosed by stunning mountain ranges and sprawling hills and featuring the best of rural living. It is bordered by the Gold Coast hinterland. All of these are areas which I have the privilege to represent.

I want to place on record my humble appreciation to the people of Wright. They are a hardworking, resilient community and I appreciate the trust they have placed in me, returning me to this place as their representative for a fourth term. There are hundreds of people that helped me in the last election in my role as the member for Wright. They largely consist of a team or a bank of volunteers. These people help not only at election time but all year, every year. Many people have done so since 2010. They ensure their communities are heard by providing direct feedback to me, and they represent me at functions and community events when I am on other business and unable to attend.

Whilst time doesn't permit me to acknowledge all of them, there are some that I do want to acknowledge in particular. My Wright federal division council, or FDC, chair is a gentleman by the name of Matt Enright. He is an amazing operator. The work he does and the commitment and loyalty he shows, not only to our party but to the re-election cause, are second to none. I acknowledge his contribution, along with that of the deputy chair, Glenn Pavey, from the Lockyer Valley, who gets through a power of work. I acknowledge Julian Creighton, chair of the Tamborine Mountain branch; Ian Pocock, chair of the Fassifern branch; Rod and Lloyd Venz for the work they did across the entire electorate; and the entire membership of the Liberal National Party in Wright—I owe them a deep sense of gratitude.

In addition, three predominant state seats sit within my electorate—there are five if you count those on the periphery. I want to acknowledge Jon Krause, the state member for Scenic Rim, for the work he did during the campaign; in particular, Jimmy McDonald, the member for Lockyer; and Ros Bates, the member for Mudgeeraba. They are all doing a power of work in their communities.

I want to congratulate Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, and Deputy Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party Josh Frydenberg for the leadership that they showed during the election campaign. They ran an exceptional campaign and spoke to the issues confronting everyday Australians and families, not only across my electorate but across the entire country.

Just before the election, the Australian people were stunned by some of the comments coming from those in the media gallery. Paul Bongiorno, in particular, made comment in The Daily News:

… even the best "political pamphlets" don't mean much if the voters believe its authors will not be around long enough to translate words into action.

As politicians, if there's a slip-up or mistake, we are hauled over the coals and lambasted in the press for the most minor things. But, when there is such misrepresentation—180 degrees—and they are getting stories wrong, it seems to go unmentioned. In The Spectator, Terry Barnes wrote:

Alas, though, in itself this budget it won't be enough to avoid a Coalition electoral catastrophe.

The press gallery had written us off, but the people disagreed. Headlines rolled off the presses, denigrating the government's chances. If the Australian people had believed what they were reading in the newspaper and hearing on televisions and seeing on social media from those tasked with reporting our national politics, they would have been forgiven for thinking the election had already been won. One headline, on 28 November, read, 'Apocalypse now: stench of panic grips Liberals'. An article written by Charis Chang was headlined, 'It's going to be a bloodbath: 20 MPs facing the chop'. Where are the journos now? They're like crickets. Another one, from Crikey, said, 'How the states will shape a landslide coalition loss'. Anyway, I've made my point in that regard.

I will take the opportunity to remind the House that it is the Australian people who decide the government and that these things are never predetermined. The 2019 election should be a reminder to all of the commentariat that the Australian people, the silent majority, have spoken. I will never forget the night when senators from the opposition ranks and an ABC commentator sat there gobsmacked as the results rolled in. I acknowledge the work the Prime Minister did in this space, particularly his summing up, when he said:

We believe in choice. And because of that, it means we believe in our future. We are an optimistic, we are a passionate, and we are an ambitious people, full of aspiration, for ourselves, for our families, and of course for our great nation, for all of us. That is what we believe as Liberals. Our plan, my plan for this country is for an even stronger Australia.

That was from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and I commend his plan.

The trust that my electorate has placed in me means that I need to continue to deliver. I have delivered for my electorate, but there is more to do. I draw the attention of everyone to the times I have brought to the electorate none other than the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Deputy Prime Minister, more recently to the opening of the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing. It is a magnificent piece of road infrastructure which will create safety and road efficiencies and allow trucks to move from the western side of Toowoomba through to the port of Brisbane, removing up to 18 sets of traffic lights from their journey. They will be able to move freely through there now on a B grade of six per cent. It's an amazing piece of engineering infrastructure, and I commend the builders, Nexus, who completed that task, which is Australia's largest inland road infrastructure project, whose opening I was proud to attend. My people will be the beneficiary of that piece of infrastructure.

More recently, over in the Lockyer Valley, I had the opportunity to swing past Stanbroke abattoir and say hello to the 600 workers and management there. It is a little, unsung hero in the electorate. Thank you for the work that you're doing in employing those people in that community. SCT is another organisation that the federal government has partnered with. We provided up to $10 million for a world-class intermodal rail hub at Beaudesert, employing up to 1,100 people through construction and a permanent workforce that's relocated from Acacia Ridge down to our community of Beaudesert. We welcome all of you and the infrastructure and the economic benefit that goes with that project. Those projects go ahead because we have a plan and a vision for the future.

The electorate of Wright is a wonderful place to live and to do business. It's an extraordinary place to raise a family. We're not strangers to devastation from flood and other natural disasters. We had a hailstorm go through Warrill View last year. I was fortunate enough to raise a million dollars from our Treasury to appropriate to farmers, who, on the day before they were going to harvest their crop—their corn, their beans, their beetroot, their onions—were wiped out. It was like a slasher had gone through the paddocks and mown them down—not even the trash was visible. It had been spread across many hundreds of acres. I was able to secure some money and help those people recover some of the cost they had incurred in planting that crop, fertilising it and watering it. Hopefully that will keep them afloat until this year so they can replant and rebuild and then continue making a contribution to the local economy and the greater food security of our country.

We have some of the best education facilities in the country. The Lockyer Valley is home to the Gatton campus of the University of Queensland, where there is a veterinary faculty where we're training Australia's next wave of veterinary surgeons coming through. I commend all those people who come to our electorate and are able to experience the beauty and diversity of our nation through horticulture, through our dairy farming sector and through our agricultural sector. We have two sets of beef selling yards in the electorate, at Silverdale and Beaudesert. It was hard to understand a recent decision where the electorate was not considered to have enough agriculture to qualify for drought assistance.

We're continuing to invest more money in our hospitals through the states. We're investing record amounts of money in health and education. Never before has the government committed this much money to health and education, and we are committed to continuing to invest more money in both of those areas.

Staying with natural disasters, we also had bushfires up in the back of Canungra, where we lost the iconic Binna Burra Lodge. I want to acknowledge the Prime Minister and his gorgeous wife, who travelled into the Gold Coast. We secured choppers because the place was virtually shut down by the Air Force and flew over the affected area, and then landed. The Prime Minister and emergency services personnel were able to see firsthand the level of devastation that had unfolded in that area. They met with members of the local communities and were able to see firsthand the effect that losing every worldly possession would have on a family, and hear how that rebuilding process would start. As a community, I know we will put our arms around those families that have lost and suffered. We've done it before; we will do it again. I praise God that we had no loss of life, unlike during the 2010 floods where we had many, many lives lost.

We have our challenges in the electorate. We have two other businesses, called AJ Bush and Gelita. AJ Bush is a renderer that takes meat waste, such as blood, from the meatworks and butcher shops around the states. Gelita is a large company that also takes a lot of that scrap and makes it into gelatin. When you take a capsule or a tablet that you've bought from the pharmacy, often that gelatin outer coating around the medicine is made in Beaudesert. Gelita sells their product to pharmaceutical companies. Both of those operations are reliant on coal-fired base-load power. They are very energy reliant. I want to share with the parliament the challenges that both of those organisations have. They've both been longstanding customers of a company called New Hope up in Queensland, which runs the mine at Acland. The Labor Queensland government has chosen not to approve stage 3 of the mine. If these two operations don't have reliable energy sources, they will shut. These two businesses employ potentially 150 people between them. The flow-on effect upstream on a couple of thousand businesses and a couple of thousand workers will be enormous. We are trying to secure coal for them from other localities so that they can continue doing the amazing work they do. These are two amazing businesses, but we have many others.

I've got a little organisation up on Tamborine Mountain called Outland Denim. They manufacture jeans. Most people don't even know where Tamborine Mountain is; it's in the Gold Coast hinterland. This little organisation is building denim jeans in Cambodia. They are helping people get out of sweatshops and paying them great money. Meghan Markle, our new favourite royal, is wearing those jeans on the world stage. It's a great push along for that business.

We've got a camel farm called Summer Land Camels that is selling camel feta, moisturisers and nutraceutical products. They're cutting edge and they're exporting products all around the world. There is Stanbroke, which I mentioned earlier, and SCT, the rail hub operators. We have a world-class motocross bike park where people from all around the south-east corner bring their families to engage in the sport of motocross over many different styles of bike tracks. We've got world-class facilities for our rowers at Wyaralong Dam. In the south-east corner at the moment, we are hopeful that we'll be able to secure the future Olympic bid and put the Olympic rowing activities down at Wyaralong.

We have a waterskiing park at Cables, just over on the Gold Coast, which is doing amazing things. And we've got rainforest walks with suspended ropes, and skyline walks up on Mount Tamborine. We have some of the most amazing microbreweries, where you can enjoy a flat lemonade on a hot day! Some of the eclectic ingredients that they're using in some of these microbreweries are very inviting, and I encourage all those considering a weekend away to consider the electorate of Wright, and in particular the Scenic Rim. Of course, once a year the Scenic Rim hosts their Eat Local Week campaign. Strangely enough, it goes for a month, and the hotels and restaurants in Brisbane and the Gold Coast which source their products locally from these businesses bring their businesses and their clients out to these locations. They set up flash mobile restaurants where the city folk can come to enjoy and experience the delightful flavours of the Senate Rim.

I just want to acknowledge the amazing contribution that the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has made and his continued commitment to a very well-thought-out and structured plan. You only have to grab a copy of the Governor-General's address to the House to see how comprehensive our plan is. For those who may not have heard it, that comprehensive plan spoke at length about the strength of our economy and the tax reforms that are desperately needed. We've moved on some of those, but there is more to do.

It spoke about the regulatory reforms in industrial relations that we need to undergo. It spoke about our track record on jobs and the targets that we've set ourselves into the future, in making sure that every Australian has the opportunity to have a job, because the greatest gift we can give someone on welfare is a job. The plan spoke about the importance of job security, and how that translates to home security. It spoke about our infrastructure rollout plan—$100 billion. That's an unprecedented amount; never has Australia had a point in its history where we have invested more in infrastructure than we are at the moment. That's $100 billion over the next decade.

It spoke about our plan for health, and I have already touched on our unprecedented health budget. It spoke about mental health and the enormous task that's in front of us with reference to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I acknowledge the minister, the member for Fadden, who is doing amazing work in that space.

The plan also included our plan for defence, both for those serving today and of course our veterans. It spoke about the security of our nation and about our foreign policy, and the need to ensure that we continue to pursue free trade agreements into the future. It spoke about energy security, climate change and the environment, and the protection of our Great Barrier Reef. It spoke about regional and rural Australia, Indigenous Australians and older Australians. It spoke about online and cybercrime, and the safety of our nation and children.

In closing, it is a privilege for me to serve in this place. I walk up to this House in the mornings, whenever the weather permits. Next year I will celebrate my 10th year here, and as I walk up I never tire of looking up and seeing the flag above this building. It's a great sense of patriotism and a great sense of nationalism. My other half suggests to me that the day that I lose that sense of pride is the day that I should give this job away.

Debate adjourned.