Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution to the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2021 and I state at the outset that the first thing that should be front of mind for most Australian people is that, when the Liberal-National government set out to tell workers that they've got their back and that this fantastic piece of legislation is in the best interests of Australian workers and is going to improve their lifestyle, the warning bells and the alarms should be screaming at fever pitch.

I remember sitting in this chamber back in 2005 on the day Work Choices went through. The Howard government had the numbers in the Senate, in their own right, to ram through any legislation, and they did—and weren't they proud! I also remember a clap of lightning hitting this place—true as I speak. There was a little bit of sunlight shining through on Senator Abetz's head at the time, and I remember wondering if that shard of light would turn into a lightning bolt one day. Well, how did that end up for the coalition? What coalition member couldn't stand proud and tell us during the Work Choices legislation debates and when the subsequent bill hit the streets that they were so proud of the Howard government for doing that? I even saw a couple of them doing high fives, slapping each other's hands.

One thing about being in this place is that you know history does repeat itself. Here we go again. Regardless of the bad behaviour we've seen in this place—the cover-ups and the alleged offences in the last few years that would make any decent Australian want to vomit—what do they do as soon as there's a pandemic? They can't help themselves; it's in their ideological DNA. I heard the contributions of a couple of senators yesterday, one of whom was Senator Small from WA, and I did read some comments on Facebook—and I'm not going to be so rude as to mention anything about his name and his capability; I wouldn't dare do that—telling us that this is not ideological. Bulldust! This is ideological. I'll tell you why. If the government over there, any of those Liberal or Nationals senators, had a shred of decency in them they would be telling the Australian people, while they're telling them what a magnificent job of looking after people they're doing with this piece of legislation, what they have done for Australian workers in the last seven years they've been in government. I'll make it easy for them: just name three things that would have Australian workers standing up saying, 'What a magnificent job the Liberal-National coalition have done!' Not one of them can do that, because they would get torn to shreds. What have they done for their mates in big business? That would read like a Funk & Wagnalls; that would be 26 or 27 volumes. And here we go again.

While we're talking about history, I want to send a message to my crossbench colleagues. I do respect the crossbench; I am one of those who absolutely respects the crossbench. Even though we have differences of opinion, they were elected in their own right. They have faced the people and they have been sent by their respective states to represent the good people of those states. I say to Senator Lambie, Senator Patrick, Senator Griff, Senator Hanson and Senator Roberts: the last time we saw a wonderful—and I've got my tongue in my cheek—piece of legislation to 'help' working men and women in Australia, the crossbench senators who supported that bill are no longer here. There could be myriad reasons why, but I've got to tell you, Senators, the biggest thing going into the 2007 election was Work Choices. The Howard government, with all the lemmings on the other side and the crossbenchers who supported them, couldn't wait to put it in. They all went out the exit door. They're not here anymore. I appeal to the crossbench senators not to fall for it—no matter how those opposite fluff it up, no matter how many hundreds and thousands they sprinkle on this horrible sandwich—because the Australian people will not be taken for mugs.

We know one of the greatest issues this nation faces is wage theft. This is not new to me. I've been talking about wage theft for many, many years. I'm really happy now that the media are actually talking about wage theft. I want to congratulate those two magnificent Labor state governments in Queensland and Victoria, who not only talked about wage theft but moved heaven and earth to bring in legislation to address the issue. When will it ever happen in this place? Never. I shouldn't ask myself the same questions. It's never going to happen. I have been running around the great nation of Australia talking to truck drivers left, right and centre—not just to the suits and the representatives of transport associations. Senators opposite, if you want to have a bubble, bring it up now; give me examples of where I might be wrong. All they want to talk about—they want to talk about many, many things, but the biggest issue is wage theft. What really irks people is that mob over there. They pretend to be the friends of small business. This is the nonsense you'll hear from the LNP: 'We're the party of small business.' Well, if you are the party of small business, please explain to me how we have small businesses in this day and age that are getting the living daylights screwed out of them by the top of the supply chain. Nothing in this bill goes to addressing that. What about all those magnificent, hardworking small businesses in every industry you could think of who are being told to sharpen their pencil every time they put a quote in. They are being told, 'We can't pay you in 30 days. We might pay you in 45. We might even pay you in 60.' I have examples of 120. I have examples of 150, but that was one of the multinationals.

So, LNP senators, tell me what you've done for small business in this nation in terms of getting them remunerated on time or in a reasonable time. LNP senators, it's crickets over there. Not a thing! Also, where in this nation do we have a body called the Fair Work Ombudsman? The Fair Work Ombudsman is charged with a number of things. One is to seek out those people who aren't doing the right thing in paying their wages. Where in this bill—please point me to it—does it even say that thou shalt fund the Fair Work Ombudsman, let alone have it get out there and prosecute people and put them behind bars if it has to, or whatever it needs to do, to recuperate hard-earned moneys for people who have not been paid properly? I gave examples of that in this place two or three weeks ago. Please tell me where in the bill it tells me that you're going to address this in order to look after workers? As expected, there is not a thing. I'm giving you the opportunity.

We have examples of high-profile businesses self-reporting, and good on them. They've self-reported and come out and said, 'Look, we haven't paid our people properly.' And I can understand that sometimes there could be bogies in computers and all that. I get all that. We have celebrity chefs and we have Bunnings. These are people—not the celebrity chefs but the likes of Bunnings—who normally do pay, but there has been a slip-up. They've fixed it. That's fine; that's great. We heard that Maurice Blackburn had done it. They got out there and fixed it. When the grand party of the small business stand ups and says, 'You know what? Every time we give the opportunity for an employer to do the wrong thing and not get pinged,' where in your psyche do you think to yourselves, 'But what about the poor people that are doing the right thing?' Point me to the clause in this bill that says that you will do your best to look after the people who are paying the correct wages but are losing contracts to people who absolutely engage in wage theft and superannuation theft? Is there anything there? No, I didn't think so. You can't point me to it.

I listened intently to a number of contributions today. One of the best contributions I heard was from Senator O'Neill, who was on the committee. A legislation committee looked into this bill. I've done a few committees myself over the years. I heard Senator O'Neill tell me very clearly that the government—not the opposition and the crossbench and the Greens—only let them have three hearings. This is a massive bill that is going to be so fantastic for Australian businesses, so fantastic for Australian workers, so fantastic for casuals, so fantastic for those that have insecure employment now! There were three days.

I've made a couple of contributions in here in the last couple of weeks about how disgusted I am in the modus operandi of this LNP government. In the last seven years they have done everything they can to not answer questions in the inquiries. They get the departments not to answer. And—lo and behold—it happened again to me last week when I was conducting the inquiry into the Transport Security Amendment (Serious Crime) Bill 2020. It was the same old same old: 'We'll insult the Senate. We'll insult the senators.' That's fine; you'll get away with that for a while. But you insulted the witnesses who had travelled and who wanted to come and present their cases. You, the LNP Morrison government, are all guilty, the whole lot of you together, of sitting back and thinking that you could control it and that there would be only three hearings. Last time I looked, there were about six or seven capital cities that we would normally go to to seek that information from the people. Then I heard the example from Senator O'Neill of the nurses who had travelled. There might have been one nurse or a couple of nurses; I apologise if I've got that wrong. They were most upset that they couldn't get to present their take on insecure employment and their take on the bill.

As Senator O'Neill said very clearly, our frontline workers were the ones that ministers and the Prime Minister couldn't wait to get their photos taken with. They were standing next to the nurses, standing next to the healthcare workers, standing next to our essential workers fighting the pandemic. Senator O'Neill described when a nurse had to say to her husband and kids, 'If it breaks out, I might not be able to come home for a month.' The LNP senators—I don't know who the LNP senators were on the inquiry; I'm blaming the whole damn lot of them because they're all guilty through association. Where in your psyche do you think it's fantastic that you can snub the Australian people on the one hand, while on the other hand telling them you're doing everything you can to look after them? I know no-one on that side is going to answer that. I know there are Labor senators who are going to answer that, and Greens senators and crossbenchers who can answer that.

Here's another one—casualisation. Before they all start jumping up like a pack of cockies carrying on, casual work suits certain employees. But I've got to tell you, as someone who didn't slither my way through university while I was trying to figure out how I could work for someone and then get a job in the Senate or as a member of parliament without actually going off to work and doing things, when you are casual there is no way known you can seek a loan. You cannot get a loan for a car. You can't do it. You certainly can't get a loan for a house. How do I know? Because I have spent many, many years—I broke every industrial law in the land I could find, and I am proud of it. I marched truck drivers and forklift drivers and loaders off the job in the good old days, when workers could collectively bargain, before Howard got his claws in there with the support of all the lemmings behind him, to proudly stand on picket lines and proudly make it known to anyone around, 'We ain't moving until our brothers and sisters have got permanent jobs.' I'm so proud of my history there. I just wish I could have spent the last 15 years doing it as well, but I've been in here trying to fight the good fight for workers. So, in this bill, you point me to where any worker can say, 'Thank you LNP, thank you Mr Morrison and the lemmings; you have got my back.' What a load of bull.

There is another part here I want to find out about. One of my greatest hatreds in the transport industry—and I'll let other senators talk about this—was, and still is, labour hire. I might be wrong; labour hire may now have a conscience. But back in the great old days, when I had the steelcap boots and jeans on, there was not one decent word that I could put my tongue around to describe or link to labour hire. Labour hire were the parasites of the road transport industry. If it's changed, come and see me. Labour hire: the preferred option for the multinationals and everyone else who wanted to screw down wages and conditions. Do you know why I hated them? They never invested one single cent into the welfare of the workforce. Show me one single cent in the transport industry that labour hire put towards training and skills development. It ain't going to happen because it never happened. Give me one example where labour hire said: 'Gee whiz! We're making a motza, so how can we pay our labour hire people on a multinational site the EBA rates of pay that the permanent employees get on those sites, or the casuals?' Guess what? Chameleons. The labour hire mob could blend in with the jungle because they were never responsible. They never did anything for anyone except for themselves, except for helping bosses screw down the working conditions and wages of their permanent and their casual staff. Please point me in the direction of whatever page, of whatever paragraph that proves me wrong, shows where this bill is so darn good for working men and women in Australia?