Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I'm happy to do so. I understand that Senator Hanson is embarrassed about her recent performance in the Queensland election and I understand that she's embarrassed to have it pointed out to her that she has sold out older Queenslanders, again, but why that's relevant here is that it's exactly what she's doing here in this bill. The amendment that Labor succeeded in having passed by the Senate, when the bill was last put here, seeks to protect older workers. It seeks to stop employers from sacking older workers, replacing them with younger workers and then putting their hands out to get a subsidy from this government to help pay for it. This is a measure that is designed solely to protect older workers—the very people who Senator Hanson constantly goes around Queensland saying that she cares about.

Just as Senator Hanson did in the Queensland election, where she sold out older Queenslanders by demanding the borders be opened, one-and-a-bit weeks since the Queensland election she comes back down again, sells them out again and says that their jobs are expendable, that they should be replaced by younger employees and that she's not going to stand up for them. I'm sorry, Senator Hanson, but if you're prepared to sell out older workers in Queensland, Labor isn't.

We're going to stand by older workers in Queensland, and we're going to tell older workers—over and over again—that you've sold them out. Your vote's down to seven per cent in Queensland because you sold out older Queenslanders over COVID and the borders. It'll go down further when they find out that you're selling them out about their jobs. Older workers are concerned about their jobs and job security right now, and Senator Hanson is prepared to trade them off as yet another deal with the Liberal-National government. The reason she does that is that she cannot be trusted. She always votes with the Liberal-National government. She's doing it again, and this time older workers are paying the price. Senator Hanson's going to be held to account for this, and she still has time to reconsider her position.