Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Protecting Worker Entitlements) Bill 2023. This continues much-needed reform to industrial relations in this country and reaffirms the Albanese Labor government's commitment to improve pay and conditions for Australian workers in every workplace across the country.

I rose in this place last year to speak on the historic Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs Better Pay) Act 2022 and its important reform to lift wages, improve job security and close the gender pay gap. Our government IR reforms are about improving awards, improving enterprise agreements, improving bargaining and creating better workplaces for Australians. This year, 2023, is about closing the loopholes that some businesses use to undercut such arrangements. This bill commences that process.

This bill is about protecting workers' entitlements, including by enshrining the right to superannuation as one of the National Employment Standards. And how important is superannuation to Australian workers? It is so terribly important. Again, it's something that was introduced by a Labor government. The bill will also promote gender equality. The amendments to the unpaid parental leave scheme will provide families with greater flexibility so that work and care responsibilities can be more easily shared. That's so important to our national economy.

The bill will also deliver reforms to improve fairness in the workplace relations system by protecting all workers, regardless of their visa status, and ensure that casuals in the coalmining industry are on par with their permanent colleagues with respect to long service leave—fundamentally important for all Australians. It continues the work of the government to align other IR reforms that create a fairer Australia.

The bill amends the Fair Work Act 2009 and related legislation, to improve the workplace relations framework, by providing greater certainty for the work status of migrant workers, by dealing with inaction between the Fair Work Act and Migration Act 1958. That's an election commitment that we are delivering, as we are with our election commitments—unlike those opposite when they were in government.

We are making sure there is greater job security and opportunities for all Australian workers by providing stronger and more flexible access to unpaid parental leave, that aligns with the recent changes to the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010, a Jobs and Skills Summit outcome. We are inserting an entitlement to superannuation in the National Employment Standards—again, an election commitment—clarifying the operation of Fair Work Commission determinations and enterprise agreements. We are expanding the circumstances in which employees can authorise employers to make valid deductions from payments due to employees, where the reductions are principally for the employee's benefit, and we are ensuring that casual employees working in the black coal mining industry are treated no less favourably than permanent employees in their accrual, reporting and payment of their long service leave entitlements under the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Scheme.

Fundamentally, this should always be happening. But what happens? You have to wait until there's a Labor government, because we know that when those on the other side were in government their policy was to keep wages low and do nothing for workers. It is crucial that the provisions in the bill relating to unpaid parental leave commence by 1 July 2023, to align with the commencement of changes made by this government to the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Act 2023. Again, who has taken that next step to ensure that paid parental leave is able to be shared by both parents? A Labor government. This will ensure that parents can access weeks of unpaid parental leave equivalent to their government paid parental leave entitlements. Some parents may be unable to access government parental leave pay without access to additional unpaid parental leave. That is so important. When you have babies and young children, ensuring both parents in the workforce have that leave is good for the parents, the family and the economy.

This reform was recommended by both the Migrant Workers Taskforce and the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee inquiry into the government's secure jobs, better pay legislation. Reports responded to concerns by advocates for temporary migrant workers that it is unclear whether Australian workplace laws and conditions extend to temporary migrant workers. It has also been argued that such confusion may mean that temporary migrant workers do not seek information or assistance from official sources, such as the Fair Work Ombudsman.

All workers working in this country are entitled to and deserve protection from exploitation. It's the view of the government that the Fair Work Act should be clear that it also applies to migrant workers. Anyone working in this country who is not an Australian citizen deserves the same rights and protections. Doubt has been raised about this, and the government is acting now to fix this and address it, unlike those on the other side when they were in government. Parental leave reforms from our government are a significant step towards ensuring that there is fairness in the workforce and that we have strong economic participation by parents sharing parental leave and the same protection for migrants working in this country who are here on temporary visas.

This parliament has recently passed the largest expansion to government funded paid parental leave since the scheme was established in 2011. The changes in this bill go hand in glove with those changes made by the Minister for Social Services. These changes provide commensurate employment rights to ensure that the government's changes to paid parental leave have real meaning. So the women and parents of Australia should rejoice because these reforms will improve the lives of working families.

The bill will also protect workers superannuation entitlements by including superannuation in the National Employment Standards. Australians are quite rightly very proud of our world-class superannuation system. Thank you very much to former prime minister Paul Keating for that. Superannuation is a key part of workers being able to build a financially secure retirement, which is the right of every working Australian. Currently, the Fair Work Act does not have an explicit requirement for an employee to pay superannuation to their employees. As the minister pointed out, this is a loophole that needs to be closed. In almost every instance of wage theft, superannuation is also part of how workers have been ripped off. I've seen that happen time and time again, even in my own state. Even people I've known who owned businesses didn't pay superannuation to their workers. They used it to buy themselves a better home. It's outrageous. It has taken a Labor government to close those loopholes. Superannuation is a very important part of our economy. It's important for Australian workers to build that security as they move into retirement. This amendment is about making sure that a worker can recover both superannuation and wages in an underpayment claim under the Fair Work Act. That is critically important.

Every Australian deserves a secure job and better pay, but there is no point in having a secure job and better pay if a loophole exists within the industrial relations system that undermines workers entitlements. This bill starts the process of closing many loopholes in the system. It goes a long way towards ensuring that Australian workers have their entitlements, that they get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, that their superannuation is protected going forward, and that people with families have their entitlements to be able to spend time with their children during that very critical time. That helps those families. It certainly helps those children. It also helps the parents. But just as important as all of that is that it helps our economy. It builds a stronger, more highly skilled workforce.

But despite this bill and these changes, as proud as I am to stand here, there's still so much to do in this area. I don't have the voice to go into the gig economy and the issues around making sure that there's safety at work. There are so many issues that we still have to address in this area of workers to protect their rights and ensure that they have a safe and secure job and a very safe workplace. There's a lot more to be said about that in the coming pieces of legislation, but I commend this bill and I urge those in this chamber to support it.