Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Lines for the question. The simple reality is that when the guidelines were removed in July, nobody's pay was cut. Nor was anybody's pay cut in August or in September or in October. I understand that a situation has arisen in the Department of Immigration and Border Protection where some workers are now subject to a new contract regime. So let's get this clear: it had nothing to do with the removal of guidelines, which was a vote of no confidence both in the trade union movement and in the Fair Work Commission. What these guidelines basically meant was that the union movement's enterprise bargaining agreements were not seen as good enough where the unions had signed off on them and where they had gone to the Fair Work Commission in the modern award saying, 'This is something that we agreed to', and signed off on. What they did as a government towards the end of their term was to seek to boost certain wage outcomes in only a very few offices of one per cent of cleaners, where you had, for example, offices owned or operated by Comcare being cleaned by cleaners on different pay scales.

What we say to those opposite is very clear: wages should be set either by an enterprise agreement or under the modern award and not by government interference. The changes that have occurred at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection are a result of new contractual arrangements because the contract—