Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens are doing the job that the government should have done. Instead of agreeing with us and realising they are leaving people behind, they are choosing to label this an excuse to disrupt the Senate. No, it's not. It's the Greens, with the opposition and the crossbenchers, trying to do what the government have failed to do—that is, to protect all workers in this country and to stop the spread of COVID, because sick workers are having to go to work because they have no income.

But the government would rather spend their time rushing through a bill to trash our environment laws, because that is what they are trying to do. They would rather rush through a bill to trash our education system, to trash our universities and to make life so much harder for young people in this country. They don't want to refer either of those bills to a committee—oh, no. Why would you do that? No, they want to rush those through. But when it comes to actually protecting our community, to making sure that no-one is left behind, the Greens get accused of disrupting the Senate. No, we're not. We're not disrupting the Senate. We're doing the government's job for them to ensure that people are not left behind and to ensure that we don't get situations where sick workers have to go to work because, for example, they may have used up all their sick leave. But they should not have to, in fact, use up all their sick leave in order to take time off work. They should know that they have the security of pandemic leave, because that is what we're dealing with in this country: we're dealing with a pandemic. We need leave to make sure all workers are protected, particularly those casual workers whom the government have so clearly left behind. They don't get access to JobKeeper. Those on temporary visas don't get access to JobKeeper. The government are quite happy to leave those people behind, while saying, 'We're all in this together.' No, we're not. Those who don't get access to leave aren't all in this together; they are being left behind by the government.

This bill would provide 14 days of paid COVID-19 leave to all workers, including part-time, casual and gig economy workers. They would get this if they were diagnosed with COVID-19, if they were unable to attend work because their workplace had been shut down due to COVID-19, if they needed to self-isolate or quarantine in accordance with a Commonwealth, state or territory government policy relating to COVID-19, if they were caring for another person who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 or if they needed to self-isolate or quarantine in accordance with a direction from a state or Commonwealth government. Paid pandemic leave would be added to the National Employment Standards, and the Fair Work Commission would have the power to make COVID-19 leave orders to extend 14 days paid leave to workers or classes of workers who may not be employees, such as food delivery drivers. That makes absolute sense. The government should be doing this.

The Greens shouldn't have to be seeking to move to suspend standing orders in order to bring this debate on. We are being very reasonable. We're asking for an hour and a half to deal with this. And, given the need for this, given the urgency of this—because all Australians know we are not out of this pandemic yet—we need to act to protect everybody. This would not only ensure that workers are looked after, it would also protect the broader community. Having sick workers go to work does not help anybody; in fact, it could help spread COVID-19.

This is a complete flaw in the government's approach to COVID-19. It's a whacking great hole in their approach. How can you think of moving to recovery, moving out of this and lifting restrictions by Christmas as the Prime Minister is now saying? Well, unless we're looking after all our workers, we're not going to get there. This is part of our response to the pandemic; it's about ensuring that people are not left behind. I tell you what, this government is leaving people behind. This is essential legislation that the government should have moved. We're doing their job for them.