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

Thanks, Senator Polley. I know Senator Polley was very happy to join a whole heap of workers, along with many other colleagues this morning, to acknowledge and celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill 2024 being passed through this parliament. That piece of legislation passed by the Albanese government has given workers better work-life balance, more job security and improved workplace conditions.

The second tranche of our closing loopholes legislation, which is now one year old, introduced a right to disconnect for eligible workers when they are not working or being paid, set new minimum pay and other standards for workers in the gig economy and the road transport industry, and provided a fairer definition of casual employees, enabling more casual workers to convert to permanent employment. In fact, Senator O'Neill and I were talking with one of the workers this morning who not only has been able to convert to permanency but, along with other colleagues, is able to go to the bank and get a home loan for the first time. That's the kind of difference it's making to people.

But, of course, these reforms are now at risk from Mr Dutton and the coalition because they voted against them, just as they voted against every single one of our workplace law changes that are delivering higher wages and better jobs for Australians, while also voting against every measure we have taken to provide cost-of-living relief. Now, as we approach the next election, they have already confirmed that they will repeal the right to disconnect and our protections for casual workers, and they've flagged further attacks to workers' wages and conditions by promising a targeted set of repeals of our workplace laws. We know they will follow through in doing that because every time they've ever been in government the coalition have gone out of their way to cut workers' wages and cut their conditions to serve their big business mates. Not only did they do that last time they were in government, when they boasted about keeping wages deliberately low, but they voted against every change we've made to try and turn wages around for Australian workers. (Time expired)