David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

After years and years of advocacy and far too many lives lost, today the parliament is taking concrete action to turn that around. Reversing the onus for approving PTSD on first responders will save lives. For police officers, firies and ambos, for those taking the calls from people in emergencies and for Border Force it will save lives from 1 January next year if this bill, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023, goes through the parliament today.

I thank Senator Cash and the opposition for supporting these important changes and for working with us to see the will of the Senate deliver for first responders. I thank Minister Burke, Senator Urquhart and the government in general for working with us to get this done this year. I'd like to acknowledge Tasmanian paramedic Simone Haigh and the many others who have pushed for more recognition and support for first responders. This is the first step in implementing the Senate Education and Employment References Committee's report The people behind 000. There is clearly much more work to do.

I'd like to acknowledge Vince Parnell and all the Heart2Heart walkers, who travelled nearly 3,000 kilometres from Australia's red centre to Canberra to ask for greater mental health support for first responders. I'd also like to thank Billy Brooks, from Emerge & See; Jim Arneman, from the Australasian Council of Ambulance Unions; Greg McConville, from the United Firefighters Union; and Alex Troy and the team at the Australian Federal Police Association.

Ambos, cops, firies and emergency service workers have met with me over the last 18 months and shared their stories of pain and what they and their families have been going through. I thank them all for their advocacy, their bravery and their service. I hope this goes some way to showing that this parliament has their back. I thank Senator Lambie for the enormous good faith, passion and commitment she brings to this cause.

The review of Comcare will also be a game changer, as will amendments to the SRC Act to change how independent medical examinations are used. The constant retraumatisation of first responders must stop. I met last week with someone who has had 27 independent medical examinations.

I apologise to the people we have let down, the families who have seen their loved ones not get the recognition and support that they need and deserve from us. The parliament has heard you and decided to change this, but we have to acknowledge that for some this has come too late. The tears of mothers and families, like Kay Catanzariti, should no longer be shed in vain. Long overdue changes to industrial manslaughter will help make sure that workers come home safe.

In the midst of a national crisis of women being murdered, in far too many cases by their intimate partners, changes to better protect people experiencing family and domestic violence are also welcome. I note the coalition's strong support for that. This is concrete action in the 16 days of activism.

Additional protections for small business are also part of today's agreement. In addition to important worker safety measures, these changes will help stop workers being underpaid. In this cost-of-living crisis, where real wage growth has stagnated for so long and too long, protecting people's pay has never been more important.

BHP and Qantas have ripped off workers for far too long now. We've rightly seen in the Senate the coalition, with Senator McKenzie and Senator Dean Smith leading the charge, holding companies like Qantas to account for their behaviour and going after CEOs like Alan Joyce, but we're not seeing their support to close down the practices that these same companies and CEOs employ to make sure they make a profit, get their performance bonus and walk away with tens of millions of dollars, while the workers who are handling the luggage and who are on flights get ripped off. This clearly needs to stop. Australians do not want the people who serve them on planes, who will be there to help keep them safe in an emergency, to be employed by 12 different companies and to be constantly undercut. This is clearly a loophole that needs to be closed. There are clearly legitimate uses of labour hire, but we know that some employers are using it to pay workers less. This will stop with this legislation.

Intentional wage theft should be a criminal offence, and now it will be, as will the non-payment of super. This is only intentional wage theft, because we know that mistakes are made. In this legislation we've ensured that small businesses are looked after, with these provisions not starting until the small business code is in place and, as Senator Lambie said, there is further resourcing for the Fair Work Ombudsman to engage with small businesses. We know that small business owners are flat out. Many of them are struggling to simply keep their small business going as well as pay the mortgage.

I've said from day one that this bill was too big to be dealt with all at once, and that's why a number of complex measures will be dealt with next year. The Senate committee has hearings for 22 January and will hand down its report on 1 February. These are complex, economy-wide reforms, like changes to casuals, and will rightly be dealt with next year. I recognise how important things like protections for gig workers are, but it's critical that we get that right for a growing area of our economy where we're regulating across the board.

Every time I hear a first responder recount their experience of trying to live with PTSD and the impact that it has on their families, the urgency of doing better is brought home to me. That's why we're here—to do better. This week, the other place farewelled one of its best—the member for Dunkley, the irrepressible Peta Murphy. Peta said, 'What is politics for if not to make a difference?' And she was right. Today we will make a difference.