Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I rise through the Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party on behalf of the people of Queensland to support the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017, protecting unpaid workers and other vulnerable workers. My focus is on two aspects. I will start with the problems this bill addresses, and there are four main problems.

First, we have seen reports of the deliberate and widespread underpayment of workers. These have been too common in Australia. Allegations of underpayment have been raised in relation to major corporations 7-Eleven, Muffin Break, Gloria Jean's, Subway, Caltex, Domino's and Pizza Hut and their franchises. Second, this conduct by certain businesses is enabled by inadequate penalties and ineffective laws which fail to deter law-breaking and make worker exploitation difficult for the regulator, the Fair Work Ombudsman, to prove. The ALP was responsible for creating the Fair Work Act. Third, underpayment of workers is unfair for workers but also for competing small businesses who do the right thing and face higher costs because they are complying with the law. Fourth, when someone abuses their power, whether it be union bosses intimidating small businesses or dodgy employers exploiting vulnerable workers, the government must and should take action.

So the solutions in this bill as we see them are targeting serious contraventions and making franchisors and holding companies accountable. The bill as we understand it will, firstly, amend the Fair Work Act to increase penalties by 10 times for serious contraventions of payment related protections in the Fair Work Act. This will apply when contraventions are systemic and deliberate. The bill will raise penalties for record-keeping requirements to make them consistent with penalties for underpayment of workers.

Secondly, it will outlaw cashback and other coercive behaviour by employers where employees may be paid correctly but then forced by their employer to repay part of their wages.

Thirdly, it will hold franchisors and holding companies responsible for underpayments where they should have known about them but failed to take reasonable steps to prevent them. We have also checked to make sure that, with regard to the varying franchisee/franchisor relationships, people who are not responsible won't be made accountable. This will hold accountable only those who are indeed responsible for payments.

Fourthly, it will strengthen investigation of underpayments by giving the Fair Work Ombudsman effective evidence-gathering powers and outlawing the provision of false and misleading information and the hindering and obstruction of inspectors who carry out investigations into compliance with the Fair Work Act.

It's quite clear, from the experience that many Australians have had and from the media reports, that these are urgently needed and necessary plugs in holes in Labor's Fair Work Act. While these are welcome, sadly, it only looks at one side of what makes workers vulnerable: underpayment. And I want to speak on behalf of vulnerable workers, because, including workers—

Debate interrupted.