Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The problem with this One Nation motion is that the Liberals and the Nationals say one thing about the cost of living but their actions say the exact opposite, and that's what this One Nation motion goes to the heart of. They come here and talk about the cost of living, but when we introduce bills for laws to relieve those measures, they vote against them.

Labor introduced an emergency energy bill relief plan to reduce power bills by $230 per year. The Liberals and Nationals voted against it. Labor invested $10 billion in new affordable housing. The Liberals and Nationals voted against it. Labor introduced laws for 60-day prescriptions, saving people millions of dollars on prescription costs. The Liberals and Nationals voted against it. Labor increased the rate of JobSeeker by $40 a fortnight. The Liberals and Nationals voted against it. Labor set up 300,000 people to go to TAFE for free. We sent them there for free, and the Liberals and Nationals said it was a waste of money. Labor made the biggest investment in bulk-billing in Australian history. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Dutton, led the biggest ever attack on bulk-billing when he was the health minister. He had a plan to introduce a GP tax for people to pay every time they saw the doctor.

Now, you've seen the pattern here. Every single week we come here to get more cost-of-living support out to working families, and every single week the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation come here to obstruct. Nowhere is that more obvious than when we talk about wages and conditions at work. We understand there are two parts to the cost of living: how much things cost and how much you earn. When it comes to making energy, medicine, GP visits, child care, TAFE and housing affordable, they oppose all of that. And when it comes to helping Australians get better paying and more secure jobs, they oppose that too.

We had a bill in this place last year that was literally called the secure jobs, better pay bill and the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation opposed it. What was so terrible about it? Why did they vote against it? The bill made it easier for employers and employees to make agreements that would increase wages. It ended the use of old agreements that expired years ago that trapped workers below the minimum wage. It put limits on the use of rolling fixed-term contracts for years at a time. It introduced a right to request flexible work. It made it illegal for employers to ban their workers from talking about their wages. It made it illegal to put up job ads for less than the minimum wage. These are all things the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation voted against.

The shadow workplace minister said:

We can now expect jobs will be lost … and large and small businesses will fold …

What actually happened? We have unemployment at record lows. Female employment and participation are at record highs. New job creation is at a record high. Wage growth is at a record high. So we know for a fact that the steps this government is taking are keeping more Australians in secure work and are delivering higher wages.

We want to go further. We want to close the loopholes that some employers like Qantas and BHP use to keep wages low. One Nation and the Nationals claim to represent coalminers in Queensland and the Hunter. But, at the same time, they are voting to keep the labour hire loophole open.

We saw in the House the member for Flynn, Colin Boyce, vote against same job, same pay for mine workers in his own area. We saw the member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, vote against same job, same pay in her own area, abandoning her community. They are all spitting in the face of mine workers who are being ripped off by the richest companies in Australia. Will One Nation and the National senators for Queensland do the same thing when the bill comes here?

Dwayne Arnold, who works through labour hire at the Grosvenor mine and is a fourth-generation mine worker, told the closing loopholes inquiry:

… I'm still paid quite substantially less than the permanent employees. It makes you feel worthless and undervalued when you're doing the same job and getting paid that much less for it …

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