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

Thanks Senator B Pocock for that contribution. You raise an important issue, and I acknowledge your long history in this area before you got to the chamber. Plenty of us come with experience from before we got here. I think Senator D Pocock would be in that space as well.

It is an important issue, and the Albanese Labor government wants to close the loopholes that are undermining job security and wages. Too many Australians are stuck in insecure work, and that is dragging down wages. In my travels through regional Queensland, I see the prevalence of casual work or labour hire and the undermining of communities that that causes. People are waiting for a phone call to know whether they have work that day, which has a debilitating impact just on surviving. Can I get a home loan? People in the casualised workforce are treated differently.

Once upon a time it was that people in those insecure jobs were students or people looking for some extra pocket money. But now, too often, it's people who are trying to support a family, to run a household, or to get ahead in life. When we think about that, it's the pressures of being part of a family. The rent doesn't operate on a casual basis. The mortgage doesn't operate on a casual basis. They're things that you are responsible for every week or month, depending on what your commitments are. People in insecure work can't take sick leave, can't get a loan, can't get ahead. And there are too many rorts and loopholes that the previous government allowed to flourish. Nearly 27 million employees, or 23.5 per cent of all employees, are casual. These are workers with no paid leave entitlements. Of the 1.3 million low-paid employees in 2021, nearly 60 per cent were employed on a casual basis and around 704,000 casual employees have had regular work with their employer. Nearly two-thirds of these have had regular work with their employer for more than 12 months. It shows you the way these people are being treated.

So, it is something that is important. This bill will focus on improving job security and gender equality by including both concepts in the objects of the Fair Work Act. Part 4 would amend section 3 of division 2 of the Fair Work Act to introduce the promotion of job security and gender equality into the object of the Fair Work Act. In addition, part 4 would amend section 134 of the Fair Work Act to include the promotion of job security and gender equality in the modern awards objective. It would also amend section 284 to include the promotion of gender equality in the minimum wages objective. We are also making bargaining more accessible to those who've traditionally been shut out of the benefits of enterprise bargaining, including workers in low-paid and feminised sectors of the workforce, of which you're well aware.

Job security is at the heart of the government's agenda, and this bill puts job security at the heart of the Fair Work Act by making job security an object of the Fair Work Act. This is more than just a symbolic change. It will now be a legislative expectation that the Fair Work Commission have regard to job security when performing relevant functions. We think that is a very important change for those impacted.