Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Senator, your turn will arrive—and Senator Minchin has arrived. This matter has been flagged. There has been a very small amount of debate—I am talking about the time given to this parliament. The process, I repeat, is wrong. Let me tell you how else it is wrong. The staff of members of parliament have been trying to get some improved income—I am talking about everybody’s staff here—for months. In fact, it goes back a lot further than that. The government has the ability to ensure that they do get a fair deal. But, instead of that, as I understand it, those negotiations have gone nowhere. There is no agreement. I think that they are underpaid and their conditions are way short of those that we enjoy as members of parliament. I might add that it is a privilege to be a member of parliament and I think we are paid well.

Surely, if we can respond so rapidly to an aggrieved new tranche of MPs, something can be done for those hundreds of staff members who work so hard for us and who deserve a better deal than they are getting. And, if you go a little further out into the community, under the new industrial relations legislation, as I understand the government’s promise, the poorest people in this country ought to have had a significant pay increase by now. But that has not happened, either.

Just a few weeks ago we passed a seven per cent pay increase for members of parliament, but the lowest paid workers in this country are still waiting for a three per cent increase. There is an unfairness in this. It is not a fair go at all. We need to look after the pay and conditions of members of parliament, but we need to be fair about it and not put ourselves in a situation of precedence over the Australians we represent, who are effectively dependent on us to give them a fair go. This legislation is not doing that.