Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Hanson. At the outset, I want to recognise on behalf of the government that we really deeply value the important work that AFP officers do every day to keep our community safe. Obviously they play a particular role around this parliament and, in some cases, with individual members of this parliament, but, more generally, they do extremely important work to keep our community safe.

As everyone is aware, there are negotiations going on at the moment in relation to a new enterprise bargaining agreement with the Australian Federal Police services. I do recognise the right of all employees to take responsible and legally appropriate protected action, where that's allowed for under the law, to the extent that those actions are safe and do not cause disruption or affect community safety and national security.

The reality is that, as in so many other parts of the workforce, some of the issues surrounding the wages and conditions that are experienced by AFP officers are a legacy of 10 years of coalition government. We have seen that to be the case across the public sector workforce. Unfortunately, the coalition's policy of keeping low wages in place applied to the AFP, as it did to various other employees of the federal government.

I'm confident that the Attorney-General, Minister Dreyfus, is handling this role appropriately, and I'm certainly very hopeful that we can achieve an agreement with the AFP officers as soon as possible. That would obviously be in everyone's interest. I note that the AFP is committed to ensuring operational continuity and community safety at all times, and we certainly have confidence in the AFP to approach these negotiations in that spirit, and, as I say, we are confident that, before too long, we will be able to get an agreement reached.