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

Today a great trauma came to the communities around Kembla Grange in New South Wales, where a train was derailed. In response to that the RTBU, ably led in New South Wales Alex Claassens and nationally by Mark Diamond, reached out to support the workers who were on that train, and provided for support to wrap around that community. That's just one of the things that union would have done to support Australian workers today. I understand that the place has been declared a crime scene. I hope that community can recover from the shock of that experience. I know they will look after each other the best they can.

At the recent New South Wales Labor conference a contribution was made by the branch secretary of the USU, Graeme Kelly OAM. He acknowledged the amazing work of our council workers, particularly in the context of the pandemic. He spoke very, very true words when he said that council workers continue to deliver the services that our communities rely upon every single day, and our local community and their families rely upon all of these people: those who provide child care, aged care, the construction of municipal roads and infrastructure, public amenities, parks and reserves, recycling, waste collection, green waste collection, development and planning, footpaths, drainage, road maintenance, swimming and leisure centres, regulatory controls, parking, lifeguards, regional water and sewerage, animal control and welfare and saleyards. He said they're just some of the many services that are consistently delivered by council workers. I want to add my thanks to those who undertake those important roles in our community. I acknowledge the support they are given by the union, the USU, who make sure that those 55,000 New South Wales council workers and 365,000 council workers across Australia get the support they need by having a great union. So unions are supporting people in a time of crises today and unions are supporting people who are vital to our community.

Finally, I want to make some remarks about another great piece of work that the unions do, and that is research into our community. I want to acknowledge the leadership of the New South Wales branch by Mr Bernie Smith of the SDA, the union for workers in retail, fast food and warehousing, and also the northern branch leader, Barbara Nebart, and the federal leader of the SDA, Gerard Dwyer, for this amazing piece of research. Around 6,500 people responded to a survey on the challenge of work, family and care, and the Who Cares? report documents the significant challenges that are being faced by Australians. It outlines the dilemma for many workers in how they struggle to balance casual and often insecure work with family obligations. Fifty-five cent of all participants in the research did some sort of regular unpaid care providing help or assistance to a child or young person, an adult person with a disability or a person with a long-term illness or health condition.

Many of the workers surveyed were in that generation sandwiched between their kids and their increasingly elderly parents. The report shows that they lack genuine choice about their childcare arrangements, that their shifts are shaped by their employer's thirst for profit rather than taking care of their staff and enhancing their business in such a sensible way and that insecure and irregular work only adds to the stresses around care. The claims from the workers in this report are shocking. One worker reported: 'It was hard to jump straight back into full-time work while juggling a sick baby. I had no sick leave entitlements. It was hard. I was made to feel like I had to get straight back into it full force or they'd find someone to replace me.' That was said by the mother of a child with a disability. Another related their situation plainly: 'I'm a single mother that gets no child support and lives week to week on my wages.' These women and their colleagues carried us through the pandemic, yet they are still, at this point in time, incredibly insecure in terms of their financial wellbeing. Even for part-time workers the low base hour rate on part-time contracts as short as three hours in some cases are simply not enough to base their lives around and to manage their very important care obligations. This report talked about the disadvantage for kids who cannot participate in sport or extracurricular activities because their parents can't get a regular shift. These are vital findings about the reality of working people in Australia in the retail industry, and I commend all those unions—the SDA, the USU and the RTBU—to the Senate.