David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

You can hear the coalition carrying on over there because their decade of delivering for the bosses is finally a decade in the past. I was lucky enough to watch the film Lethal Bias in August in this parliament, and credit to the CFMMEU for bringing that to parliament and for telling the truth about the ABCC. It's a powerful film, and I would recommend it to those who haven't seen it. I commend it to the coalition. It shows the real safety risks, the lethal safety risks, that construction workers face just going to work. And it shows the aggressive anti-union bias of the ABCC in shutting down the unions, prosecuting union officials and union members because they had the wrong sticker on their hard hat or they fly a flag on the crane. Well it is about time we abolished the ABCC. It was nothing more than an attempt to weaken unions, to attack the construction unions, regardless of safety, by the now very former Abbott government. Its removal, like the removal of that Prime Minister and the removal of the coalition government, is well overdue.

We also strongly support the multi-employer bargaining as an important way of delivering improved wages and conditions, especially for those precarious low-paid workers in industries like retail, hospitality and child care. I want to express my high regard for the work of RAFFWU, who have been excellent advocates in this space, as they have been excellent advocates for their members and who are part of why we are seeing this political change and this legal change in the law. It's critically important to ensure that no low-paid workers—no workers—will go backwards with the passage of this bill. We know already millions of workers are doing it tough, and a serious rebalancing is needed solely in favour of those workers across the country who need a fair wage.

It was always the Greens' goal as we reviewed this bill and sought amendments to it in the other place and here to ensure that no worker was worse off. That's why I particularly want to commend the work of my colleagues in ensuring that there are secured guarantees that parents will have for an enforceable right to request unpaid parental leave. I credit Senator Pocock for that work and I also credit the work of Adam Bandt and the team that protected the existing better off overall test, the BOOT test, and especially its coverage for prospective workers. The legislation, as originally drafted, would have removed prospective workers from those protections contained in the BOOT—the better off overall test. That almost inevitably would have seen those workers having lower wages and worse conditions than even applied under a modern award—a real danger in the original drafting of the bill. Thank goodness for the negotiations, the work and the amendments of the Greens to remove those provisions from the bill and protect the BOOT.

Let's be clear, this will be an important win for workers, especially low-paid workers. It's a good check on the work that we are doing in this place, to do our own BOOT test on the legislation, and this legislation well and truly satisfies that test. Workers will now have an enforceable right to unpaid parental leave. There will be better work-life balance. There will be able to be multi-employer bargaining to lift wages, especially in sectors like retail, hospitality and child care. That is a really good start but there is so much more to do.

To those out there who are doing it tough, working full-time and still struggling to afford rent and bills, we hear you. We are working to get laws for workers, not the just those designed to deliver corporate profits or the increased returns for billionaire shareholders. I have to tell you, there is a long list of work still to be done with this, whether it is sick leave for casuals or a move away entirely from casual and insecure work towards solid wages and conditions for all workers and moving towards a four-day working week, where we finally get the balance right between work, our families and our social lives. But for now we're going to stare down the rhetoric, the attacks and the inflated, angry response from the coalition and their few billionaire mates who are opposing this legislation and we're going to legislate this bill. We are going to take that first serious step towards making work fairer in this country.