Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution in the debate on Senator Pratt's motion to take note of Minister Birmingham's answers with regard to industrial relations, but, first up, I want to associate myself with the comments from Senator Gallagher, which were directed to Minister Birmingham and to the Minister for Defence.

I am here to stand up for Australian workers who are, at this particular point in time, under great threat from a really dodgy piece of work in the shape of an industrial relations bill that the government is pushing. We know how dodgy it is because today, despite the denials and the comments there from Senator Rennick, the government has had to drop a big chunk of the bill, the BOOT—the better off overall test—because it became very clear in evidence given to the Senate employment committee over the last couple of weeks that what the government was proposing was going to lead to workers being worse off overall—more insecurity and cuts to wages. That is what this bill was lined up to do. If it gets through, even with the amendment, workers in this country will still be absolutely worse off.

We could tell today that Minister Birmingham, in full flight here in the chamber in question time, didn't know what his colleagues in the other chamber were doing, and the only defence he could muster was to say it's 'his intention' in this legislation, it's the 'government's intention' in this legislation, to look after workers. I can tell you what: you cannot trust the intention of this Liberal-National government. You can never ever trust its intention. And I remind Australians who might be listening to this that the road to hell is, in fact, paved with good intention, and this bill will be hellish in its outcomes for Australian workers.

Senator McDonald made a contribution here this afternoon. She was actually in Queensland, in Townsville, where our committee went to take evidence. She asked a question about what was going on with this legislation, and she got a response from Mr Bukarica, who was giving evidence about the total impact of the bill. He did agree that this omnibus bill—for those who might be listening who don't understand, it's like you get a great big bag and you chuck everything in it that you want and somewhere at the bottom you bury a tiny smartie-sized little sweetie that you think you can get away with, so one small thing that might be good that you can hang on to while the rest of it is totally doing over the Australian workforce—'has a range of measures'. He was trying to be honest—a unionist saying, 'Not all of them are bad, but, taken as a package, the bill should be rejected.'

Well, they've jettisoned one bit today. They've jettisoned the BOOT. There's a lot more they need to get rid of. The rationale? Mr Bukarica put it very well:

I've already stated … there's a critical flaw in the bill in relation to the definition of 'casual employment'.

Let's be clear. If this government gets its way and this legislation gets through, you'll be a casual employee if your employer says you are a casual employee. There will be no clear and proper test. It's totally exploitative. It's totally exploitative of Australian workers. The only reason that this government's mentioned the definition of casual at all is because they want to stand up against workers. Through this legislation, they want to construct cuts to your pay—more insecurity for you in your work.

They have dressed up the most disgraceful little response to the concerns of people who want to become permanent. Not everybody wants to become permanent. Sometimes it's handy in your life to be a casual. We know that. We support it. But, if you want to become permanent, this government's got this little play going on where they say, 'If you want to become permanent, we're making it easier for the boss to ask you if you want to be permanent.' Except they're not letting you know that if the boss changes your shift any time in the last six months, over a period of 12 months, that means they do not have to ask you. The government have given the whistle to the captain of the opposite team and removed the umpire. That's what they've done. That's how rigged against the workers this government's construction of this legislation is.

We are fighting tooth and nail against this omnibus bill, for the Australian small businesses and workers. We will continue to fight day in and day out. The BOOT's gone. We need to stick the boot into the rest of it and get rid of this disgraceful piece of legislation that is full of government intention—mal-intention—for Australian workers.

Question agreed to.