Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I also thank the Senate for passing this. This will give great encouragement to the workers who are being put in the very difficult position of losing their jobs in such an ugly way. By text and email is certainly not the way any workplace should be conducted. The MUA and the workers who Senator Cameron and I were with, on Sunday, said they just want to sit down and negotiate and that they are very committed to making their work productive. There is already a high level of productivity there and they are ready to negotiate to ensure that this is a well-functioning port. The concern that many of them spoke about is that this company, Hutchison, is very centred on setting up a body-hire system. That is something that we see as a tactic coming from this government where they are committed to stripping down penalty rates, and there was a real concern that what will be critical to winning this campaign is defeating the Abbott government.