Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance and Administration (Senator Minchin) and the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Senator Vanstone) to questions without notice asked by Senators Wong and McEwen today relating to changes to industrial relations.

We saw today, yet again, the Howard government’s extreme approach to industrial relations. What was confirmed yet again is that their ideological blinkers will not let them be swayed in their determination to impose further reductions in the rights which are afforded to Australian workers. We know this because Senator Minchin, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, said in his speech to the HR Nicholls Society:

We do need to seek a mandate from the Australian people at the next election for another wave of industrial relations reforms.

And today in the Senate, on a day when four million or more Australian workers will lose their right to challenge an unfair dismissal, this minister refuses to indicate which of the few rights remaining under this government’s extreme laws will be in this government’s gun sights in the future. We have a situation where this government has already pared down Australians’ fragile rights to a bare minimum. What we want to know is: will it be sick leave? Will it be parental leave? Will it be the concept of a minimum wage? Will it be hours of work? Will it be annual leave? Or will it be all of them—will they all be up for grabs?

What we saw today is Senator Minchin again describing this as a moderate and reasonable package and saying that Australia will still have a more regulated system than a number of other countries. If what he is referring to is the United States, I say: thank goodness for that. We in this country, until this government came to power, have always opposed the American social model: the concept of the working poor and the sort of dog-eat-dog situation in workplaces that we fear will come under this legislation. So what we think was confirmed again in question time today is that there is more to come. What we saw was Minister Minchin refusing to rule out which of the few rights which remain will in fact not be targeted by this government in the future.

On top of that, Senator Vanstone, in an extraordinary flight of fancy in answer to a question from Senator McEwen, did not address the issue of the workers in South Australia at Murray Bridge and at Naracoorte but went off on a discussion of a whole range of other issues associated with visas. I say this at the outset: there is nobody in the Labor Party who is opposed to foreign workers coming into Australia if—I stress if—that is appropriate. What we say is: you do not abuse and rort a visa process to allow unscrupulous employers to employ foreign workers when Australians could be employed. You do not allow a situation where a skilled visa is used to essentially cut the cost of labour through the exploitation of foreign workers, wherever they might be from, who are performing jobs which do not comply with the visa classifications. What was put to Senator Vanstone in relation to the so-called skilled visas for the workers identified by Senator McEwen is that her own department had suggested they were not in fact doing skilled work.

So what is facing Australian workers under this government? First, there is a situation where this government does not ensure that unscrupulous employers do not rort a visa process such that it simply deprives an Australian of a job they would otherwise legitimately have had. But, more importantly, we have had clearly articulated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate in his speech to the HR Nicholls Society that there is more to come.

What we do know is this: what if we have a situation where an employer unfairly dismisses employees and replaces them with people on a so-called skilled visa? First, we can have absolutely no confidence that there will be any rights to remedies for the workers involved. We know that what this government has done is to remove unfair dismissal rights from four million Australian workers. Second, do we have any confidence whatsoever that DIMA will ensure that the visa has been appropriately applied? Do we have any confidence that the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs will ensure that skilled visas are in fact used to bring in skilled workers where there is a skills shortage in Australia? Because our concerns are that that is not the way they are being utilised by a number of employers. The meshing of a number of Howard government policies will make jobs for Australians more insecure and will reduce their rights at work, and the worst thing about this is that we know from Senator Minchin, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, that there will be more to come. (Time expired)