Jodie Belyea (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question as to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How are Australian workers better off under the Albanese Labor government, and what risks are there to this progress?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to the member for Dunkley for asking a question about the economy and about the cost of living. It's only with every second question that you realise that's an issue in Australia. When we hear from over there, on budget day of all days, they've abandoned any discussion about what might be happening in Australian households—completely abandoned it.

There's a series of changes that we've made to workplace laws. They have improved people's flexibility and have improved how much money they are getting into their household every single payday. Changes that have been made because of reforms that this side of the House and the Albanese Labor government have taken to the parliament are now finding their way into improved outcomes for the wages of every working Australian.

Every single one of those changes, those opposite opposed—every single one of them. Bit by bit, they're gradually letting on that not only did they oppose them on the way in but they're now wanting to cut them if given their chance. Every Australian worker knows the simple truth that, when the Leader of the Opposition cuts, they will pay. When he makes cuts, they will pay in their pay packets every time. Some of the issues he tries to dress up. We had the whole conversation about working from home. Yet, what was his solution? His solution was job share. Job share means pay cut. If you've got a full-time job, where you're working some of those shifts from home—thinking about the way that people can be packed up in traffic in my part of Sydney, you can absolutely understand why some people want this flexibility. If the only answer is 'job share', that means 'pay cut'. When he cuts, people pay for that. He also wants to scrap the right to disconnect, where he's making sure that people would work longer for less. Once again, he'll cut people's entitlements; they'll pay with the outcomes.

But it's workers across the board. Take just one workplace that the Leader of the Opposition might have heard of. One of the changes we made was to get rid of zombie agreements. One workplace had an agreement that had been struck in 2007, was meant to expire in 2012 and was still running in 2022. At this workplace—as I said, he will have heard of them; they run some restaurants—the workers were receiving no weekend penalty rates. Some of the workers were receiving no public holiday penalty rates. Some of the workers were being paid for 38 hours but working 50 hours. The company was Merivale, and once again the Leader of the Opposition is making it clear that he'll cut and that workers will pay. (Time expired)