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

We want Australians to earn more and keep more. Making it a reality means fixing the decade of wage suppression under the Liberals, shoring up job security and closing loopholes in job contracts that have caused the leakage of hard-earned wages like the thief in the night. We have criminalised wage theft, stopped the chronic undercutting of workers through labour hire—think Qantas—and improved the bargaining system to help workers, including women, get a better deal by sitting at the table rather than going cap in hand to their bosses. We have banned pay secrecy because silencing women denies them economic progress. It is an oppressive measure incompatible with modern Australia. Casuals can now convert to permanent work if they desire, giving them the freedom to spread their wings, because permanent work opens the door to other opportunities such as taking out a business loan, undertaking extra study or taking out a home loan. Dialling down casualisation also dials down precarity. People with good wages have better buffers against those economic shocks like pandemics. Plugging these gaps builds upon our tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, enabling them to earn more and keep more of what they earn.