Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last Friday, I read with interest an adjournment speech by Senator Boyce in the Senate on 15 September. I spoke on 5 July of the historic campaign underway for equal pay for social and community services workers, the subject of an equal remuneration case which is currently before Fair Work Australia. As I said on 5 July, the equal remuneration case application was based on pay equity rates awarded to community services workers in Queensland in the state jurisdiction in 2009. The decision of the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission was substantial, resulting in wage increases between 18 and 38 per cent. Due to the debacle that was John Howard's Work Choices antiworker and anti-union legislation, these pay equity wage rates did not take effect straightaway for all community workers in Queensland. The wage rates applied from 1 July 2009 for some employers and would only take effect for other employers at the end of the Work Choices transitional period in 2011.

The confusion some charities are experiencing that Senator Boyce is so concerned about began in 2006 with the introduction of the Work Choices legislation, which arbitrarily divided an entire industry into those governed by state legislation and those governed by federal Work Choices legislation. The Gillard government continues to work to repair the damage caused by Work Choices. In October 2009, workplace relations minister Julia Gillard signed a heads of agreement with the Australian Services Union which precipitated the referral of powers and brought the entire social and community services sector under the Fair Work Act, excluding parts of Western Australia. As part of this heads of agreement, the Commonwealth committed to the protection of the pay equity rates of pay for Queensland community services workers, in particular those workers who would have been entitled to the pay equity rates if not for the referral of powers. It is these wage rates won in Queensland in 2009 that Senator Boyce thinks are a disaster.

In 2009, the Bligh government in Queensland committed $414 million over four years to the sector. This went to 591 organisations, many of which were required to pay the pay equity rates to their employees from July 2009. The Commonwealth regulation prescribing 316 employers in Queensland are in addition to the many hundreds of employers who have been required to pay the pay equity rates since their introduction.

Let us remember that we are talking about wages—the money in the pockets of hardworking people who assist Australians in crisis who, for example, counsel victims of sexual violence, including children, and who work in accommodation services with youth at risk, with the homeless and with people with disabilities. We are talking about the wages of working people who assist Australians when things go horribly wrong, or when intervention or special assistance is required, or when Australians have a need for particular support to fully participate in our society with dignity. Senator Boyce spoke little about these workers. She also spoke little about the clients who rely on community services workers. The people who rely on community services and rely on charities deserve high-quality care.

Australians who need community services deserve the assistance of appropriately qualified and skilled staff. It should not be contentious that any employee, regardless of gender or industry, should be fairly paid. Australians deserve and expect high-quality community services and community services workers deserve and should rightly expect fair and equitable wages.

In August 2011, the Bligh government committed $125 million in recurrent funding to the sector to assist in meeting the ongoing cost of increased wages. Of the 316 employers prescribed by the regulation, many have been paying the pay equity rates since they were introduced, like Micah Projects and Brisbane Youth Service. Some organisations that received no additional funding and are not prescribed by the regulation to pay these rates have passed the wages on to their staff, like the Queensland Council of Social Service. It is not uncommon for good employers to pass on reasonable sector wages to reward and retain their staff. Many organisations across Queensland have paid these rates since the beginning in recognition of their dedicated and hardworking staff.

The Commonwealth regulation allows for the phasing of back pay to staff to January 2010. To ease the burden on employers, the back-pay arrangements are phased over three years until 2014. This is to ensure that staff still receive their entitlements, while allowing employers time to manage their obligations.

The Gillard government wants to uphold its commitment in the heads of agreement to give legal force to hard-won pay equity wage rates for thousands of social and community services workers in Queensland. It is fair and it is reasonable for these dedicated professionals, these working women and men, to expect a decision on work value to be honoured, such as the Queensland pay equity decision for social and community services workers. The protection of the pay equity rates is the right thing to do and this Labor government will continue to ensure fairness for working women and men, and the protection of their entitlements—unlike those opposite, who are planning to reintroduce their Work Choices mark 2 policies, policies that saw women working full time on Australian workplace agreements take home $87.40 per week less on average than women on collective agreements. Under Work Choices, 64 per cent of Australian workplace agreements cut annual leave loading and 63 per cent cut penalty rates. This is the back to the Work Choices agenda those opposite in the Liberal-National coalition want working families to swallow once again.

If I need to be questioned on this, I only need to refer to Senator Boyce's media release dated 17 March 2008, where she says:

Individual workplace agreements are not the big bad wolf that the Government would have us believe, and many businesses across the country believe that flexibility is crucial to a modern industrial relations system.

Tell that to the women who were coerced into signing the Spotlight Australian workplace agreement—a 2c per week increase for the loss of their annual leave, penalty rates and a plethora of conditions. That is what those opposite wish to reintroduce.

To add salt to the wound, Senator Abetz has filed a notice of motion in this chamber for the disallowance of the regulation to provide pay increases to the women and men who work in one of the most poorly paid industries in Queensland. Effectively, this means the Liberal-National Party is trying to strip from thousands of Queensland workers their entitlement to the pay equity rates of pay fought so long and hard for. Senator Abetz's motion is a direct attack on the rights of Queensland community services workers, who deliver services to protect vulnerable Australians and provide our social safety net. Senator Abetz should withdraw his motion and stand up for Queensland community services workers by ensuring Queensland pay equity wage rates are legally protected for community services workers.