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

Mr President, you have to admire the cheek of the Australian Labor Party to ask questions about cleaners' pay, given the record of Senator Cameron's leader in this very area!

However, can I indicate to Senator Cameron that the cleaning contract at Parliament House was never subject to the Cleaning Services Guidelines. Even if the guidelines still existed they would not have applied to this contract. The issue here is about an employer renegotiating an enterprise agreement, something that requires the agreement of their workers.

As is the case for the rest of the industry, negotiation of above-award wages in enterprise agreements is a matter for cleaning contractors and their employees, not government. A key factor in these negotiations should rightly be affordability and value for money. Undoubtedly, that is what the union and the employer will deal with.

But there is no reason to have different rules just because a cleaner is working in a certain type of government office in a certain location. The guidelines to which Senator Cameron referred applied only to some government offices. They applied in Chatswood but not in Campbelltown. They applied in Parramatta but not in Penrith. They applied in Melbourne but not in Geelong. They only ever applied to one per cent of workers in the industry.

What did these guidelines do? They required employees to be provided with information about joining a union by union officials. They had a requirement that union delegates attend all staff inductions and a requirement to schedule employee meetings with union officials. That is why the Australian Labor Party champions this bizarre intervention by government that should be determined by the umpire, namely the Fair Work Commission. (Time expired)