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

What a great suggestion to put up and have a debate today about the cost of living. When reading this suggestion on what we should be discussing today, I thought about small business struggling to stay afloat. That is a critically important issue. We need to make sure that small business has the opportunities to operate efficiently, effectively, get a fair return and to not be exposed to unsafe practices, not be exploited by those at the top of the supply chain or the companies they work for. That's something I hold very dear, because I've been lucky enough to be the national secretary of the largest small business organisation in this country, the Transport Workers Union.

Among the discussions and debates we've had over many decades is something that's been fundamentally opposed by those opposite, and that is giving small business rights. When the gig economy legislation came up, those opposite argued time and time again about gig workers not getting minimum standards. Here are people providing the labour and the low-cost equipment, yet they're turning around and getting paid such pitiful amounts of money that they have to work extraordinary hours. And, when those companies decrease their rates further, they find them working even more extraordinary hours.

A survey of well over 1,000 riders from just over two years ago showed that 74 per cent of respondents used multiple apps to receive enough jobs and money. But what the report most importantly said is that 81 per cent of the respondents depend on the money they earn from ride share, food delivery or parcel delivery to pay bills and survive. What that leads to, in these important statistics, is that 55 per cent of the total respondents have experienced threatening or abusive behaviour, with 43 per cent noting the risk of being abused by a customer is a significant concern.

Why do they all do that? It makes you wonder. Over 45 per cent of those workers receive less than minimum wage. They've got a choice: they either work extraordinary hours, put up with the abuse—and they have poor rates of pay, as owner drivers, as gig workers. They get such little amounts of money that they have to keep putting up with the abuse. They have to keep receiving these poor wages. And those poor wages mean they have to work more and more extraordinary hours.

What we saw leading up to the very important legislation making sure that very small businesses, microbusinesses, get minimum rights and conditions against the big, powerful gig companies, the Ubers of this world, who engage nearly 120,000 workers across this country—what they have to put up with is a bargaining position. I'll go back to 2021, when Senator Stoker, who is thankfully no longer here, said contractors are able to take time off work and can go work for somebody else if they're not happy with the money they get paid; they can just seek employment elsewhere. And then we saw Christian Porter, the then minister, saying that there are complicated questions which need consideration for economic modelling about if you can turn around and give these workers rights. So it was too complicated to turn around and give minimum conditions to contractors. And then, of course, in 2022, the opposition spokesperson on industrial relations, Senator Cash, talked about how the gig economy is an opportunity for independent contractors to have the freedom of flexibility to enter into contracts, negotiate their own rates of pay, set their own times and duration of work.

Well, the reality is they can't set them. The companies just tell them: 'This is what it is. This is the rate of pay you're going to get paid.' What those companies do is, when somebody speaks up, they sack them. In January 2024—and there is a long list of examples—delivery rider Zhuoying Wang took her concerns about low pay and rider safer to HungryPanda while taking part in a peaceful protest in Sydney CBD. Instead of sacking her, HungryPanda simply stopped giving her orders. In 100 hours logged on to work she earned just $84. That's 84c an hour for 100 hours. That's why we need to go to the commission. That's why they need to have rights to say that they shouldn't be treated that way. That's why these microbusinesses should have an opportunity to be union represented. The workers should also be able to represent themselves through a system that gives them a voice. Zhuoying said:

I spoke out about it and tried to talk to the company, to ask for help. I never engaged in unlawful behaviour. I just wanted a fairer, safer job.

That's what we voted for, and that's what those opposite voted against.