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 Paterson, who represents 75,000 people who've now got the tax cuts come through for them, making sure that people earn more and keep more of what they earn. I also thank the member for Paterson and the member for Hunter for arguing more than anyone else in this place to make sure that we close the labour hire loophole so that people doing the same work would receive the same pay.

The mining union has been making a number of applications of the Fair Work Commission, and yesterday we got the first decision from the Fair Work Commission. It goes to mine workers at the Callide coal mine in Queensland. Reportedly, for those workers at Callide, the difference in pay between labour hire and directly employed workers was $10,000 to $20,000 a year. Only 40 per cent were employed directly; the rest were employed by WorkPac. These were workers who attended the same meetings but were paid less, who operated the same machines but were paid less, who wore the same uniform to work but were paid less, who followed instructions from the same managers but were paid less, who used the exact same roster but were paid less, who were in the same production crews but were paid less, who shared the same crib facilities but were paid less, who undertook the same training but were paid less and who did the same job but were not given the same pay.

I can announce to the House what was decided by the Fair Work Commission yesterday: from 1 November these workers who are doing the same job will get the same pay. This is something that was fought for by members on this side and opposed by every single member opposite, and the summary of what that means in terms of cost of living—because when you talk about cost of living, one of the critical things is: 'What's the money that's going into your bank account to start with?'—is that, for these workers, more money is going into their bank account because of the pay rises. More money is going into their bank accounts because of the tax cuts. One of those workers, Josh, said this: 'The pay rise will have a very strong impact, particularly since I've just started a family. I now have a daughter who's just two months old, and this pay rise will help go towards the essential things like housing, grocery, bills, nappies and baby clothes.' Every one of those workers, as the extra money goes into their bank accounts, knows that those opposite want people to work longer for less, and those on this side want to make sure that they earn more and keep more of what they earn.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.