Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thought Senator Rennick's contribution was going to be the most unhinged part of this debate, but Senator Cash well and truly took over from that.

I want to acknowledge Michele O'Neil from the ACTU, who is in here, as well as Robert from the ASU. I gather they're here to hear Senator White's first speech. She is a really good unionist and, at the same time, someone who will make a fantastic contribution to the Senate.

There are plenty of things I'm happy about with the election win. Obviously being in government and having the opportunity to change the country is significant, but I'm also pleased that the opposition kept Senator Cash in that portfolio because it is a real reminder to workers about who is on the side of the workers in this chamber. What if you went up to Australians now and asked: 'What was the last election about? What was a really significant thing? What did Albo really stand for in the election campaign?' I think they'd say, 'He wanted to see workers get a pay rise.' He was attacked for that by the now opposition. He was attacked for that in the media. But if you look at our record and what we have done in government, that is absolutely what we are focused on.

The first act of the Albanese Labor cabinet was to support a wage rise for those on the minimum wage. We've also seen a commitment when it comes to aged-care workers and support for them to get a wage rise once that decision is made. So there is absolutely no doubt for the Australian people, and it's only further emphasised by the unhinged attack on the Jobs and Skills Summit that we've seen from the opposition. Those opposite still don't get it: we are on the side of workers; we are proud to be on the side of workers and we want to deliver for workers as part of an Albanese Labor government.

It also shows that those opposite have learned nothing from the election campaign. They took no lessons from the election campaign. The Jobs and Skills Summit was about bringing people together. It was about trying to seek common ground. No-one involved in labour relations in this country thinks that the current system is working. That was clear in the lead-up, it was clear at the summit itself, and that's why we want to work together. It says so much about this opposition that they've completely missed the mark on that. They have failed to understand what our motivation is and why we are seeking to bring Australians together on this.

The Jobs and Skills Summit did not culminate on Thursday or Friday last week; there is ongoing work that will continue to happen. Also, it was about the lead-up work that was done by the government, the round tables that we had. I think there were almost 100 round tables held in different geographic regions, with different industries, and that led to the optimism that we saw on display on Thursday and Friday. We're all part of getting out there and listening. The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and I are in Rockhampton and on the Sunshine Coast. We had round tables; we involved local workforces, councils, unions. We wanted to ensure that we heard from a broad cross-section of the community.

Last week I was in Roma and did a community lunch with about 30 or 40 people from Roma, in western Queensland. They were excited and were openly talking about what the Jobs and Skills Summit would bring and the opportunities it would bring for regional and rural Australia as well. Then, on Wednesday before the jobs summit I was at the Business Council of Australia dinner, where the Prime Minister was the guest speaker. Those business leaders could not leave quickly enough to get to Canberra because they wanted to be part of the conversation as well. They took in the right spirit what this government is trying to achieve by working constructively with people.

What is the opposition so upset about? Why are they so unhinged? Why are we getting this ridiculous scare campaign of Senator Cash saying it's going to take us back to the 1950s or 1960s? No-one is advocating that. All we are wanting to see is that workers get a fair go and that they can bargain effectively to get a pay rise. But, as part of that, what we all want to see is the economic system working for the advantage of workers and also those people who want an increase in productivity at the same time. So it is completely reasonable for this government to go about consulting with people to find the best way forward and to try to work constructively where that happens and ensure that we can take the country forward as a result. That is why we were elected. That is how we intend to govern, and I think the Australian people are seeing a government that is committed to listening, that is committed to consulting and that is committed to working with everyone in the best interests of Australia.

It shouldn't be revolutionary. That's actually how governments of all persuasions should act. But the fact is it is revolutionary, because for 10 years we saw none of it. We saw 10 years of deliberate low wages because that was actually a deliberate design feature of the economy that the former finance minister set. This government is committed to turning that around. We're committed, where possible, to working with all cross-sections of the economy to ensure that we can achieve these goals and achieve these gains, and the Jobs and Skills Summit was a key part of that. But their reaction is absolutely illustrative of the response from those opposite. They are failing to see the direction that this government is taking and failing to see the support of the Australian people for wanting to take the country in this direction. They are missing the mark. They are reverting to their same old scare campaigns. It isn't going to work, and it isn't going to distract us from achieving the goals that we want to achieve.

If you look at the last decade, real wages have gone backwards in this country. The opposition, whilst in government, spent 10 years looking for every opportunity they had to attack workers. We saw from Senator Cash, when she was a minister, the attack on unions and raids on union offices. They had antiworker legislation that they tried to introduce under the cover of the pandemic as well. Now, instead of focusing on the positives of bringing Australians together at the Jobs and Skills Summit, they are trying to run a desperate scare campaign, and we've seen that in their contributions to this MPI. They haven't learnt that the Australian people want an opposition who are constructive, one that will work with the government to improve legislation, as we did in the previous parliament. The Australian business community understands that. The social welfare sector understands that. The unions understand that. But it's something that the opposition is still failing to heed. The Albanese Labor government know that we need to get wages moving again. That is why we were so focused on the Jobs and Skills Summit being a success. We know how important this is to the Australian people, and those people have been doing it tough after 10 years of no wages growth.

But, despite the opposition's scare campaigns, this was a summit that brought together governments, employers, unions and the broader community, including David Littleproud as the National Party leader. The summit came up with a solution to build a bigger and better trained and more productive workforce that's focused on boosting real wages and living standards while creating more opportunities for Australians as well. The one thing that all sides agreed on is that we needed a new approach and that the current industrial relations system isn't working. The Albanese Labor government has listened and is acting. We will legislate to create more flexibility for workers and businesses to reach agreement and get wages moving. We are making changes to close loopholes in the Fair Work Act, loopholes that allow wages to go down. Instead of looking for solutions, the opposition are running the same tired scare campaigns that they did in government. They aren't wanting to work together to improve the system so that it's working for businesses and workers and we can increase productivity and improve wages. They talked a lot about small business, but the fact is that the small business council of Australia were represented. What they said and what Alexi Boyd said was: 'What we're hearing from our members is some of them are saying that this is something they would like to look into.' It's as simple as that. So we have seen some constructive comments from the small business community.

As the Prime Minister said this morning on ABC radio:

I see myself as pro-business and pro-worker. I see that there is common interest between business and unions, that Australia works best when we're all headed in the one direction, when there's that spirit of cooperation, and that is the spirit which I wish to foster. That's the spirit that I saw in evidence over the two days of the summit.

You can see the clear contrast there of a government that wants to make progress on these issues, because we understand how important they are for the Australian people. We want to see unions being able to represent their workers and being able to achieve success for their workers in terms of productivity, in terms of wages and in terms of job conditions. We also understand that we need businesses to thrive at the same time, and that's what bringing people together at a summit will achieve. None of the nonsense that we've seen from those opposite is going to achieve anything. We are going to be focused on delivering for Australian workers, on delivering for the Australian community. Workers of Australia will know that an Albanese Labor government is absolutely on their side and we will always be on their side.