Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have just had a senator extolling the virtues of this incredible victory that she is claiming. I want to put on the record the words of James Campbell who, in describing this victory, from the point of view of those in government, said:

The consequences of his victory for the people who clean Commonwealth offices is that from now on instead of having to pay them $22.02 an hour, their bosses will only have to pay them the award of $17.49.

The reality is that it is going to make one awfully big difference to the people that we see cleaning this building.

I am sure that the people sitting up in the gallery today—if it is their first time to come to the parliament—would understand the symbolic power of this place. There are many people who come here and expect this place to be in great shape. And our cleaners do that. They do an amazing job. In all the places I have worked—including in schools, where the symbolic power of having a clean place for people to work in is important as well—it matters that we have people who do the very important work of cleaning and that we pay them a fair and decent wage.

We believe that we do important work in this place, and the cleaners who work here are proud to work here. It is my pleasure when arriving at parliament—often early in the morning—to see the cleaners out at the front gallery, the marble hall, cleaning it and preparing it for people to come and visit this great place, our parliament. They deserve a fair wage for the work they do.

We think we are doing important work in this place, but it may not always be of interest to the media or public. One of the important things being discussed here today relates to 'repeal day'. It was the government's position on repeal day to try to make cutting red tape much more interesting than it really is. They say there are 8,000 unnecessary regulations. This is the work of government. Normal governments get on and do that kind of careful cleaning-up of regulations. We got rid of about 16,000 of them while we were in government, last time, but we did not create a media circus. We did not create a day of stunts. We got on with the important job of repealing things that needed to go. But Tony Abbott's repeal day—