Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Bernardi, you can rail all you like, but this is pretty typical of you—living a life that is full of wealth and full of privilege. Sitting in this place on a minimum rate of $200,000 per year, you wouldn't understand what it's like, you wouldn't have a comprehension of what it is like, for somebody in 7-Eleven to have their wages ripped off through a 'hear no evil, see no evil' approach by 7-Eleven. Some of the worst people in this country—some of the richest people in this country, who own 7-Eleven—are ripping young people off, ripping migrants off and ripping workers off mercilessly. Yet you want a government where there is no regulation to support those people.

I can't understand why Senator Cash, who sits down with the department and works out all the issues that she wants to deal with, suddenly comes here and capitulates to Senator Leyonhjelm, capitulates to Senator Bernardi and capitulates to Bruce Billson in the Franchise Council. This is just a nonsense. These workers need regulation. They are the most vulnerable workers in the country; they need regulation. We need to make sure that if they go on a job they get paid properly for the work they do—a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. It doesn't happen with 7-Eleven and it doesn't happen with the Franchise Council, but all we hear from Senator Bernardi is: get government out, get unions out, leave workers to try and deal with some of the richest and most powerful people in the country. It doesn't work that way. Workers in this country need regulation. Workers in this country need legislation to support them. Young workers, who can easily be exploited, need rules, regulations and laws that give them a fair go.

Yet what this minister is doing, what these crossbench senators are doing, is proposing that these workers should be left exposed to some of the most powerful people in the country and that 7-Eleven should have absolutely no accountability for what happens in stores with their name above the door. All they want is for 7-Eleven franchisors to pick up all the profits and to have no accountability and no responsibility. That is absolutely unacceptable. The government, again, is demonstrating that, when it comes to the crunch, they make a lot of noises about looking after people, but that is just an absolute farce. We had WorkChoices under this government and we've had ABCC bills under this government. This bill now is simply saying to franchisors: just pretend you don't know there's a problem, and then you have no responsibility for the ripping off of vulnerable workers in this country. It really beggars belief that we have gone through the expose of workers in 7-Eleven, workers in Caltex and workers on farms in regional Australia being ripped off under franchise systems, and companies then say: 'We don't care. We don't care what happens to those workers. Even though the goods are being sold in our shops, we don't care. Even though we are making massive profits out of the exploitation of these workers, we don't care.'

And this is a 'We don't care' amendment from Senator Leyonhjelm and Senator Bernardi, supported by Senator Cash. They don't care what happens to workers in this country. They don't care if workers can't put a meal on the table. They don't care if an employer says to a worker, 'I'll pay you what I'm supposed to pay you legally but you will give me money back.' They don't care about that. I just can't believe that in this argument for small government Senator Leyonhjelm would just abandon vulnerable workers in this country. Well, it does make a bit of sense when you see what Senator Leyonhjelm does in this place: he's basically a rubber stamp for the coalition. So you can rubberstamp this again, Senator Leyonhjelm. You can lie in bed at night when workers are out there working all night at 7-Eleven, getting ripped off, and it will be your doing and Senator Bernardi's doing, under Senator Cash's watch.

Under Senator Cash's watch, workers in this country get ripped off terribly. Senator Cash gets up and makes noises about supposedly caring about workers. This bill was supposed to be about ensuring that workers get a fair go, but at the first sign from the Franchise Council, when the extreme Right wing of this Senate gets up and moves an amendment, what does Senator Cash do? She gets up and capitulates. She has absolutely no credibility when it comes to looking after workers who have been ripped off with their penalty rates, workers who have been ripped off with their annual leave loading, workers who have been paid and then have to pay money back, workers who are being charged thousands of dollars to get a job, workers who have been sent off to training and have had to pay for it themselves at a premium, and workers who have to supply their own cars and petrol. These are workers who are vulnerable, yet this government doesn't care. Senator Leyonhjelm doesn't care. Senator Bernardi doesn't care. This is an absolute disgrace.

This is about Labor standing up for workers who can't stand up for themselves. We do need regulation. We do need laws to support vulnerable people in this country. That's why we have a parliament: to make sure that young people don't get ripped off, to make sure that all workers can go to work and not be ripped off. But to try to conflate this as some agreement that a union might come to with an employer where wages are increased in one area and penalty rates reduced in another is an absolute nonsense. This is about saying that franchisors who have their name above a company, above a garage, above a service station, have responsibility to make sure that the laws of this land are imposed effectively.

They just want to walk away. They don't want to accept any responsibility. I can understand that the government does not want workers to have a fair go in this country. This is a government that would do anything to try to destroy effective collective bargaining. They would do anything to try to destroy effective trade unionism in this country. But by simply turning a blind eye, which this amendment does, to the rip-offs and scandals that companies like 7-Eleven have perpetrated on workers in this country is an absolute disgrace. Senator Cash must have thought that it was worthwhile doing this, or the bill wouldn't have been here in the form in which it was presented.

I did indicate in my speech on the second reading that the pressure was on the government, through the Franchise Council, who are some of the biggest donors to the Liberal Party in this country. The donations come in from 7-Eleven to the Liberal Party, and now the payback is on. That's what this is about. This is about big business buying its way out of any regulations and any laws that impose proper oversight by them on the franchisees that they set up under their name and that end up ripping people off. This is an absolute disgrace.

In this country we really need a government that understands how tough it is for working people; how important it is for working people to have access to penalty rates; how penalty rates actually put food on the table; and how penalty rates let some families send their kids off to school with a decent pair of shoes. This is a government that would have workers in complete servitude if they could. We know their pedigree, we know their background: Work Choices, where the bosses get complete control over workers; where penalty rates can be taken away; and where the union movement can't get access to actually represent the workforce. Yet, on this, where 7-Eleven and Caltex and other big franchisors have turned a blind eye to some of the worst rip-offs in this country, suddenly we find at this late stage that the government won't even stand up for what were pretty ordinary amendments. They want to weaken them even further.

Bruce Billson has done the job on Senator Cash. Bruce Billson has done the job on Senator Leyonhjelm. Bruce Billson has done the job on Senator Bernardi. How ridiculous is it that someone who was in here, a former cabinet minister, was taking money from the Franchise Council while he was still a member of parliament and then has the gall to go around to Senator Cash's office, to Senator Leyonhjelm's office and to Senator Bernardi's office and say, 'This is a terrible thing. We shouldn't really look after exploited workers. Please let 7-Eleven off the hook, please let Caltex off the hook, please let big franchisors off the hook.' They should simply be able to say, 'Well, we don't know what's going on down there,' even though it is their company's name above the door. 'Workers should be allowed to be ripped-off. The penalty rates should be allowed to be taken away. They shouldn't need proper accountability, in terms of what's being paid to some of the poorest and some of the working poor in this country.'

This is a complete capitulation by the right wing of this Senate to big business. This is a complete capitulation to allowing free rein for the rich and the powerful against the weakest people in this country. This is absolute nonsense. The franchisors have a significant degree of control. They can set the payments and they can set the conditions that ultimately lead to what workers are being paid on the job. They have complete control over what happens for franchisees. Franchisees are not independent businesses with no allegiance to someone else. Franchisees have to sign off on codes of conduct and on terms and conditions that are put on them by companies like 7-Eleven, yet when workers are being ripped off 7-eleven says, 'No, we have nothing to do with it.' That's what this government is prepared to capitulate to. Senator Cash, under her watch, sees apprentices being ripped off, the working poor being ripped off, workers' penalty rates being ripped off, and she won't stand up for penalty rates for workers. Senator Cash has the DNA of Work Choices there.

But, Senator Leyonhjelm, you and Senator Bernardi should understand how tough it is for some working people. You should actually be exercising some logic and some common sense instead of giving Senator Cash the excuse to capitulate to the Franchise Council and Bruce Billson. I think it is a nonsense.