Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the motion to take note of answers to questions that were provided by Ministers Vanstone and Minchin. Today is a red letter day for the Howard government, we have to say, because finally today it gets to impose on Australian workers an industrial relations agenda that is so extreme that even the ultra-extremist HR Nicholls Society is critical of it. All of the government ministers’ finest rhetoric and quotes cannot disguise the reality of more than 1,000 pages of legislation and regulations—more than 1,000 pages that will undo more than 100 years of struggle by the workers of this country to build an Australian workplace system based on the notion of a fair go for everyone. It was a system that had as its centrepiece the independent Australian Industrial Relations Commission. It was a system that had as its starting point industrial awards that guaranteed all employees a fair wage and which meant that employers were not forced to reduce wages to give themselves an advantage against their competitors.

It was a system that gave employees who were unfairly dismissed the right to challenge their termination of employment and seek redress. It was a system that allowed the states to have their own industrial relations systems, systems that were by and large simple for employers and employees to use. It was a system that enabled unions, through test cases, to apply for changes to working arrangements that benefited all workers and their families, not just union members. Let us not forget that it was unions, in 120 years of struggle, who fought for paid annual leave, paid sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, redundancy pay and a plethora of other workplace benefits. The legislation that comes into effect today is a shameless attack on the ability of unions to continue to do that work on behalf of all Australians and their families. As we know from Senator Minchin’s comments to the HR Nicholls Society, there are people in the government who do not think the legislation has gone far enough and who want to implement an even more extreme agenda to send us further down the path of the American system of low pay, no security, take it or leave it workplace arrangements.

It is a very curious thing that a government that engages endlessly in rhetoric about freedom, choice, individual rights and doing away with third party interference has today implemented an industrial system that has a centralised federal government on front and centre stage, a government that will now be able to wield power to veto arrangements that employers and employees may want to willingly enter into. The hypocrisy of the government’s legislation is astounding. It is a curious thing indeed that the government that talks about reducing the ability of third parties to interfere in workplace arrangements has just imposed on the employers of Australia a whole gamut of regulatory organisations and government bodies that can legitimately meddle in an employer’s affairs, even if the employer does not want them there.

That is just an extension of the extremism and out-of-control ideology that we have seen from this government—and they call us centralists; they call us communists! You have to ask! I can only assume that the government ministers who spoke today think they will be able to dupe the Australian workforce with their weasel words and their rhetoric. I do not think that will work. Australian workers were not duped by the $21 million Work Choices booklet, five million of which still remain stored in warehouses in Sydney and Brisbane at a cost of $8,000 a month to the Australian taxpayer. They were not duped by that and I do not think they will be duped by the words that we have heard here today.

The meatworkers at Teys abattoirs in Naracoorte in South Australia certainly will not be duped. They have already seen what can happen when an out of control government’s legislative agenda enables them to be forced to sign AWAs when they really want to be under a collective agreement. They have seen what happens when an uncaring, incompetent Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs allows her department to bring in foreign labour to do the work of Australians for lower wages. The workers at Teys Brothers will not forget, just as we on this side will not forget. Those Teys workers should be applauded for standing up on behalf of all Australian workers to try and defend— (Time expired)