Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today we asked the government about its absolutely grubby deal with One Nation to strip workers of protections against being sacked and replaced by businesses that are using the government's JobMaker hiring credit scheme, and there are a million workers out there who got no answers from this government in question time today. They got no answers as to why the government has teamed up with One Nation to allow these workers to be replaced, in the middle of the worst recession in 100 years.

In blocking our sensible amendments to this bill, the government and Pauline Hanson's One Nation have hung out to dry over a million people who need support today—older workers who can now be replaced by younger workers on the government's JobMaker hiring credit scheme. What Senators Hanson and Roberts have done in this dirty deal with the government is hang out over a million workers in the middle of a global pandemic and the worst recession in 100 years. They've absolutely hung those workers out by refusing to support our amendments and giving them no answers today about exactly why they've chosen to ignore and vote down amendments that would have protected older workers from being unfairly dismissed. That's all they would have done—protect older workers from being unfairly dismissed in favour of younger workers who attract the government's hiring subsidy. They've absolutely hung out older workers who have no access to unfair dismissal protections today.

It remains unclear as to whether Senators Hanson and Roberts understood what they were voting for or whether they understood that these workers have no access to unfair dismissal protections today. Casuals with less than 12 months service have no access to unfair dismissal protections today. Permanent workers, casual workers and part-time workers with less than 12 months service in a small business have no protection from unfair dismissal today. These are the workers who could be thrown on the scrapheap, who could be replaced if they are over 35, by the government's and One Nation's failure to support our amendments and protect these workers from being replaced or unfairly dismissed. These workers have been hung out. They've been hung out by the government. They've been hung out by Pauline Hanson's One Nation. They've been hung out in the middle of this recession. They've been hung out right at a time when the latest ABS figures show that 30,000 jobs were reported lost in the last fortnight.

There is a deep jobs crisis in this country, across every state and territory. There have been 470,000 jobs lost since the pandemic began, with 160,000 people projected to lose their jobs by Christmas. This is not the time for the government to leave people behind. This is not the time for the government to leave workers over 35 behind. This is not the time for the government to leave behind older workers who could be replaced by younger workers on insecure jobs because of its dirty dealings with Pauline Hanson's One Nation in the Senate. But we shouldn't be surprised this has happened, because this is a government that finds it all too easy to leave people behind in this pandemic and this recession. One second it's, 'We're all in this together', the next it's 'If you're good at your job, you'll get a job', and it's your fault if you're unemployed in the worst recession and the worst jobs crisis for almost 100 years.

At the beginning of this crisis Scott Morrison told us that support programs would be equal and that they wouldn't leave the vulnerable behind. Well, that was one day, and this week we have seen something different, where the government has teamed up with One Nation on this JobMaker hiring credit to leave older workers behind and to fail to protect them from being unfairly sacked and replaced by younger workers in insecure jobs who may attract this hiring credit.