Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to the debate taking note of answers provided by Minister Vanstone on alleged misuse of 457 visas approved by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and also to the answers provided by Senator Minchin. I speak about this issue on a day that should see a black armband on every working Australian and a ring of shame around the Howard government for its extreme industrial imposition on working Australians. Today we observed the introduction of an industrial relations system that sees more than four million Australians lose their job security. We see a system that exposes millions of Australians to unfair dismissal and millions of hardworking Australians to uncompromising and unchallenging conditions.

The working men and women of Australia may well say: ‘At least I can still rely on the award safety net. At least my boss cannot impose an individual contract on me. At least I can still collectively bargain. At least I will not lose my overtime.’ Well, that changed today. Today the rights of working men and women in Australia have been drastically reduced. Gone are the unfair dismissal rights for workplaces with fewer than 100 staff. Ninety-five per cent of businesses in my home state of South Australia have 100 or fewer staff. Gone also are the rights to pursue unfair dismissal for workers who are dismissed for genuine operational reasons. One must ask the question: who determines what genuine operational reasons are? Gone are the significant role and powers of the independent Australian Industrial Relations Commission through the transfer of control of collective agreements to the Office of the Employment Advocate.

Workers are confused about the changes. Perhaps they should ask Senator Minchin to explain them to them. While he is doing that, he can explain why he is part of a government that is implementing a system that is grossly unpopular with the people of this country. He did give us a small insight the other day, when he openly stated that most Australians ‘don’t agree at all with anything we’re doing on this.’ He said, ‘We have minority support.’ This statement contravenes the Prime Minister, who claims that the government majority in this chamber gives him a mandate from the Australian people to do as he pleases.

The government is using today as a measuring stick for the public to gauge how the new law will affect them. The Prime Minister wants working Australians to disregard the constant warnings not only from the union movement but also from independent study groups, academics and even some in the business community. The Prime Minister is likening today to a ‘sky is falling’ scenario. In fact, Senator Ronaldson referred to that earlier. It is a sentiment being echoed by Peter Vaughan from Business SA, who also claims that we should ignore the rhetoric—the world will not end today, he says.

For some Australian workers—for example, some workers in South Australia—the sky is caving in today. At the meatworks in Naracoorte in South Australia workers have for some weeks been locked out by their employer. Today workers have been allowed to return to work. The employer withdrew the lockout. But, when the workers returned to work, gone were their skilled jobs and gone was the pay they received for them. The company has placed them in labouring jobs, not their previous skilled positions. The union representing them, the AMIEU, has been informed that these workers will be receiving up to $400 less pay per week than they previously received.

This is just the beginning of the effect of the Howard government’s extreme and uncaring attitude, leading to the changes to the industrial relations laws which we see implemented today. The sky is caving in on these workers in Naracoorte, on their job security and on their guaranteed wage, which translates to putting food on the table and paying their bills and medical expenses—the necessities of life. On the issue of the 457 visas, Minister Vanstone said that all allegations of abuse of this visa would be investigated and this applies to the workers at Naracoorte. Minister Vanstone was written to in January. Another letter was written in February. But there was no reply. DIMA did go out and inspect both—(Time expired)

Question agreed to.