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

Let me show what we're doing regarding prosperity, for example, and workplace rights. We're banning non-compete clauses, to help another three million Australians. But the Liberals and Nationals, of course, have opposed or voted against so many initiatives about workers' rights and better pay.

These initiatives include: multi-employer bargaining reform, including establishing the supported bargaining stream for low-paid feminised industries; empowering the Fair Work Commission to arbitrate and track more bargaining disputes; banning unilateral termination of enterprise agreements; getting rid of or sunsetting zombie clauses, zombie agreements; simplifying the better off overall test; improving the process of enterprise agreement approval by the Fair Work Commission; simplifying the process to initiate bargaining; simplifying the process to conduct protected action ballots; making job security and agenda equality objects of the Fair Work Act; limiting the use of repeat fixed term projects; prohibiting sexual harassment in connection with work; establishing a pay equity expert panel and caring community sector expert panel within the Fair Work Commission; prohibiting pay secrecy clauses; making it easier to request flexible work arrangements; increasing the cap on small-claim proceedings, prohibiting job ads with illegal pay rates; improving workers compensation access for firefighters; strengthening protection for migrant workers; giving stronger access to unpaid parental leave; adding superannuation contributions to the National Employment Standards; improving long-service leave access for casual workers; improving paid parental leave, including increasing it from 18 weeks to 26 weeks; legislating paying superannuation on paid parental leave; introducing 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave; advocating for low-paid workers in the Fair Work Commission's minimum wage case; fully funding aged-care and early childhood wage increases in the federal budget; same job, same pay for labour hire workers; changes to casual definition and conversions; criminalisation of wage theft; extending the power of the Fair Work Commission to employee-like forms of work; giving workers the right to challenge unfair contractual terms; allowing the Fair Work Commission to set minimum standards to ensure the road transport industry is safe, sustainable and viable; and providing stronger protections against discrimination, adverse action and harassment.

In the five quarters before our first budget, in 2022, real wages fell in annual terms. That's what the coalition delivered to this country and to working Australians. Now, under an Albanese Labor government, they've grown for the last five consecutive quarters. Under this government, there's more to do—but there's more being done than they have ever done across the aisle. They're determined to make sure they oppose every initiative about making sure that working people have fair rights and fair arrangements. What's quite clear is these regulations and these opportunities are opportunities for good business when they're competing with bad business, business that turns around and their objective is to exploit and take advantage.

The idea of getting rid of these laws, opposing these laws, means all Australians—those in those businesses that are striving to do better, to include their workforce, pay decent wages—are competing with the scoundrels that these people want to empower by taking these laws away. It's in their DNA—the Liberals and Nationals—when people are doing it tough, to rip away their rights.

Mr Barnaby Joyce said, in March 2024, that increases to the minimum wage were 'window dressing', when hundreds of dollars more were paid than the minimum wage. Mr Peter Dutton said that he was deeply concerned about our workplace relations laws, because they were going to 'result in higher wages'. In October 2022, he said that. Mr Angus Taylor said that he opposes multi-employer bargaining because, heaven forbid, it pushes up wages! That was in September 2022. You have to go to their DNA. Scott Morrison, then Prime Minister, in May 2022, said that Albanese's call for a $1 hourly increase to the minimum wage was 'reckless and dangerous', and that he was a 'loose unit'. Mathias Cormann, then finance minister, said in March 2019 that low wages growth was a deliberate design feature of our economic architecture. That's exactly what Mr Dutton wants to deliver for all Australians. The coalition want you to work longer for less. They want you to not earn more and to not keep more of what you earn. That's the opposite of what we want. We want to see you decently—