Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I got the chance to meet with Qantas workers here in Parliament House, and I asked them what they usually do for Christmas. They are going to have a very different Christmas this year. Usually, on Christmas Day, they go to work. They go to work so that other people can get home to see their families and spend Christmas with their families. But this Christmas they are looking down the barrel of losing the jobs that they have had for decades. They found out that they would be losing their jobs through an SMS. A TV screen came up with an automated message that told them that a decision had been made—not to cut their jobs because the work didn't need to be done anymore, but to outsource their jobs to another company, to other workers. I asked them: was there someone there to take your questions, to listen to you, to talk about these concerns, to tell you why this decision had been made? There wasn't. Nobody at that company was willing to stand up and listen to the concerns of workers. They had left the room.

That's why we're here today talking about this decision. We're talking about it in reference to the decisions that the federal government has made with regard to the aviation sector. Nobody here is denying that the aviation sector has had a difficult time through this pandemic. Nobody is denying that. Labor senators have been calling since the start of this pandemic for support for our aviation sector from this government. What we are saying is: if you are going to deliver $800 million in taxpayer funding to Qantas then why would you give that money with no strings attached? Why would you hand over that amount of support—support that was greatly needed to make sure people could continue to travel and that jobs could be saved—and tell workers it would save their jobs when it hasn't? This company has taken all that support from the federal government with no strings attached.

What we know is that these jobs are being outsourced, not cut. The company made a decision to make these jobs less secure, to make sure these people can't unionise, don't have annual leave and probably won't even know what their shifts are. They've given 10 years of loyal service to the company—and, let's face it, to Australians, because they have been the ones getting you home when you needed to go home for Christmas, the ones making sure you could spend time with your family. They have been the ones getting you there safely, because these workers care about safety, but this outsourcing decision will make sure that the people who stand up for safe conditions in aviation won't have the same job security they had at Qantas.

So, yes, we are asking the government: Is that acceptable? Do you support that decision? They can't possibly say that they do, because if they do they will have to admit they gave this company $800 million in support without thinking to attach the condition that the company didn't outsource jobs. I want to make sure that those opposite—because they crow a lot about supporting regional jobs—know that this decision will result in 50 jobs being cut at Cairns Airport in regional Queensland. These are 50 jobs going from a community that has already suffered enough, where jobs have already become less secure. This comes after previous redundancies resulted in about 90 jobs lost at Cairns Airport.

As I said, no-one is denying that it has been a difficult time, but when these workers have come here or when they've rallied outside MPs' offices all they've had are denials that this government is prepared to do the tough, hard thing to stand up for their jobs. That's all they're asking you to do. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.