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

Sorry, the Prime Minister's repeal day hurt many more people than it helped. We are seeing the consequences of it in this matter of public importance being discussed this afternoon. Included in the 10,000 proposed regulations to be removed by the Liberal government is one in the Australian Jobs Act that requires firms to source local goods and services for major construction projects. Another is in the Therapeutic Goods Act, with the removal of a clause requiring companies to release health warnings about their products. Caught up in this, among many other important pieces of legislation and regulation, was the Commonwealth Cleaning Services Guidelines. This is really about a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and those opposite will attack it at every single turn.

These cuts that have been sneakily pushed through mean that Commonwealth cleaners will lose up to $172 per week. One cleaner is on the record as saying that the loss of money will mean that she will not be able to drive to work. So we have this mantra about creating jobs when the government is actually making it impossible for people to get to work, because of the savage cuts coming in through this legislation. It is good that Archbishop Prowse has gone on the record saying that there is a moral dimension here and that a wage is an important part of a job. It is not just having a job, it is being able to live with that job, being able to live on a decent wage.

The sneaky, disgraceful way in which this regulation has been brought into effect is documented in the paper—the Herald Suntoday. It explains:

But Labor and the Greens were not counting on the Abetz cunning. The Employment Minister accepted the Labor/Greens amendment but before it could come into effect he revoked the regulations.

This is the type of hidden agenda and sneaky process that we are seeing from this government. It does not want any transparency. It wants to cut cleaners' wages. It wants to hide the fact that it has done it. It wants to hide the fact that it has taken away important legislation and regulation at the cost of ordinary Australians. It is a government that wants to tax people. It is cutting education, it is cutting health and it is cutting wages. The worst days of Work Choices are signalled very clearly by this disgraceful cunning piece of powerful, political play and the people who will pay the cost for it are our good cleaners. (Time expired)