Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How is the Albanese Labor government closing the loophole that allows gig workers to be underpaid and to have no minimum standards? What has been the response to the government's plans?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Higgins for the question. We've had a system of minimum wages and awards in this country for more than 100 years, but for the last decade there's been a growing section of the economy where none of that applies. We have a minimum standards and awards system because we decided in the 20th century that we would not have 19th-century working conditions; we decided in the 20th century that we would not be a country where wages were simply a race to the bottom. We made a decision, as a country, that we would not be a nation where you had to rely on tips in order to make ends meet.

But in the last decade there has been a growing section of people who are doing the exact sort of work that minimum standards were always there to help but who get no minimum standards at all. We have minimum standards for the people who pick the fresh produce, who transport it to the warehouse, who transport it to the restaurant and who make it in the kitchen at the restaurant; but the person who brings that food and delivers it to your home has no minimum standards at all. And they have no minimum standards because, at the moment, they are classified, somehow, as being small businesses.

I know what it is to be a small business; I grew up in a small-business family and I've run a small business myself. Someone delivering a pizza on the back of a bicycle for less than the minimum wage is not running a small business; they're the exact sort of person that minimum standards were always established for. And so what we need to do is accept that those individuals do not want to be transferred into employees—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Petrie is warned!

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The people who use the platforms want the flexibility of the platform—customers want the flexibility of the platform. So, in accepting that, we have to have a system which allows there to be some minimum standards. And those opposite, who have already decided to say no to minimum standards for the people who bring the food all the way to the front door—that they should somehow have no minimum standard—should listen to what Utsav Bhatarrai said when he addressed the Senate inquiry last week:

… it's paying me $20 an hour, and even less than that, without super, without any personal leave, without any sick leave—nothing.

…   …   …

… I want you all, please, to look into this very deeply, look at our problems, and pass this legislation, which will help protect our basic standard payments. … We just want our basic minimum wage …

Faced with that, the Leader of the Opposition and the team opposite say, no.

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! When the House comes to order, we will hear from the member from Wannon.