Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the significant and timely Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill 2023. This legislation presents a crucial step in us addressing the various loopholes and shortcomings that currently exist in the Fair Work Act 2009, aiming to promote fairness, equity and protection for workers across Australia.

Let's be clear about this: the Albanese Labor government came to power on a platform of getting wages moving, of addressing the challenges we have seen in this country for a decade underneath the Liberal and National parties, who had a deliberate strategy of stagnating wages to affect and impact in the most negative ways on those who are on some of the lowest incomes in this country. We need to provide equity and protection for workers, and that's exactly what the Albanese Labor government is intending to do and that is exactly what this bill is aiming to do.

Closing the loopholes will stop the undermining of wages and the undermining of conditions we have seen too much of over the previous decade. The Liberals and Nationals were doing everything they could to stagnate wages, disadvantage workers and impact conditions. They showed a complete and utter lack of understanding of what life is like for those workers who provide essential services across our country. These are the workers that we rely on for every aspect of our lives, and they are being treated so poorly. This legislation, which has been dragged out for months and months and months, needs to pass this chamber. They've fought against this legislation every single step of the way.

The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill 2023 seeks to rectify several critical issues that have caused significant issues in the labour market in this country. The bill introduces measures to provide greater certainty for casual employees and casual employers, addressing the ambiguity that surrounds the definition of casual employment and the entitlement to permanent employment benefits.

I am on the employment and education standing committee in the Senate, and we have held many hearings and have heard over and over again that the sky is falling in. The idea of taking a casual worker who has worked in the same organisation—I remember that one who gave evidence had been in the same organisation for 16 years and was still counted as a casual. It doesn't make a lot of sense when that casual is working very similar hours, in the same job, over and over again, year in, year out. What this legislation does is to provide a pathway for the employer and the employee to have a clearer perspective, to have a better understanding and to be more crisp about what that definition is and how you might go about changing your status. Employer after employer, when we unpack it, says, 'Oh, yeah, but.' The reason is that this is not a risk. This is not a challenge. This is a fair and equitable way to deal with employees across this country.

We've had great support for this legislation. What seems to be left is the political 'sky is falling in' fearmongering, which has no place. This legislation is fair, it is equitable and it goes about addressing the decade of disgraceful employment relations that we have experienced in this country. As we go about creating a fairer and more transparent framework for casual workers, ensuring that they receive the entitlements and protections they deserve, the bottom line is that the sky will not fall in. This is fair. This is equitable. This is what we should expect from a responsible government of this country. Properly defining casual work will end the exploitation.

Various other measures in this bill will end exploitation for gig workers and provide some certainty and some safety measures. The Transport Workers Union yesterday, as they have done many times in the last 12 months, brought affected workers up to the parliament so that they could speak with those in this chamber and the other about their experience, to try and get them to better understand exactly what it is that workers are facing and what this legislation is going to fix.

I'd just like to share a couple of stories. Nabin, who's a food delivery driver, has been working for multiple apps, which is necessary to make enough money in the gig economy. To get enough work, you have to work across multiple platforms. That is what people are telling us over and over again. After costs, he currently earns $13.60 an hour, and sometimes, when there isn't a great deal of work around, he can earn as little as $4 an hour. Just imagine what it would be like to try to live on that wage, to try to feed your family, to keep a roof over your head, to provide the essentials in life—on $4 to $13.60 an hour. We cannot, with any conscience, allow this to continue. There have to be changes, and this legislation provides those changes.

There are others in exactly the same boat. This is not outlandish. This is not an outlier. These are the stories that various people in various industries are seeing in huge numbers, and we're hearing the stories over and over again. If only we would listen to them. I implore those opposite to listen to those stories, to imagine what these circumstances must be like, to think about how you would cope if that was the situation you were in, if that was what you had to deal with every single day, and how that would make you feel. I implore you to think about this in the sense of what it is doing for workers on the ground—not the politics, not the hoo-ha, not the trench warfare; put all that to one side and think about the impact on workers. As I said, these are workers who are providing those essential services across our country that we rely on day in, day out.

The changes are not radical. They are sensible, fair, equitable changes. The changes are about fairness, about safety and about respect—respect for those people who go to work every day and sometimes at the end of an extraordinary long week still cannot afford to live, because their hourly rate ends up being so low. That, colleagues, is exploitation.

The other kinds of people we heard from yesterday, from the Transport Workers Union, were people like Mugdha, a delivery driver who was knocked off her scooter on her first day of work and suffered injuries that were extraordinarily painful. She said the injuries left all of the left side of her body and her lower back in pain, but she had no access to workers compensation because of the independent contracting scenario that all our gig workers have to endure. She had no access to support. She was forced to return to work while still injured, while limping and while in pain and was working hours to make up the time she'd had off. That's not safe. That's not fair.

Then we go to Robert, who was in the trucking industry for 30 years—an employee driver, an owner-driver and a company fleet manager who, as the owner of a fleet running 11 trucks, had up to 50 subcontractors. So, he is a highly experienced person in this industry. He says that the pressure to breach the fatigue rules was the difference between having work or being let go. If you're trying to feed your family, what decision are you going to make? He was constantly pushed to do more, to overload and to miss breaks. When he went on to employ drivers, he always insisted that they pull over, that they take their breaks, knowing full well the impact it had had on him. But, unfortunately, with these pressures, he had to close down his business because he could no longer afford to run the company while being safe, and he wasn't prepared to continue being unsafe.

These are the decisions people are having to make. These are the kinds of things we're talking about: how those workers, those people who are out there providing the essential services that we use every day, the essential services that we rely on, are doing so without having the kinds of protections that are required.

This bill also deals with the concerns of franchisees, particularly in relation to single-enterprise bargaining. This provision is significant because it aims to safeguard the rights and interests of franchisees to ensure that they are not unfairly disadvantaged in their dealings with the franchisor. By enhancing the access of franchisees to single enterprise streams, the legislation will promote a more balanced and equitable relationship. Surely that's what we want? We don't want to be in a situation where one group has all the power and can crush the others. That's not what we need in this country. We are looking to ensure that people can earn a decent living.

The Albanese Labor government has moved mountains in the last 12 months, in my humble opinion, to improve the wages and conditions of workers and to improve the situation of people out there doing it tough, trying to earn a decent living and having to do it against the odds because of the current legislation. So, again, I implore you to look at the stories of the people who are actually being impacted. Look at the reality of what is occurring out on the streets. Look deeply at this legislation and the fairness, safety and equity that it promotes. Then ask yourself if you can, in all consciousness, vote against it.

The bill has a range of things that were not passed in tranche 1 last year. These are the harder things, the things that people on the other side have more objections to. As I said previously, I think a range of those objections are ideological. They're about politics. They're about a form of trench warfare. They are not about the good of the people in this country. They are not about what's right, fair or safe. I implore you: think long and hard about how you intend to vote on this particular bill that is about workers' rights, workers' safety and finding a balance in our employment system that allows employers clarity. We have found so many good employers who do not have a problem with this bill and will support this bill. This is a critical bill. It is about fairness, safety and equity. Get on board and, please, vote for this bill.