Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I begin tonight by reminding the Senate and Senator Stoker that I spoke out against family violence in my first speech. It was about family violence I had experienced in my own family. So the Labor Party does stand up and talk about family violence and talk against family violence.

Senator Stoker interjecting—

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Order, everybody.

Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Stoker, I'll just remind you to be a little bit careful about the things you're saying when, clearly, someone in this chamber has spoken about it from a very personal point of view.

Our world has changed in so many ways since the last time I was able to give a speech in this chamber. Our lives have been divided for the time being into pre and post coronavirus. Although there are many things that I want to say about our economic recovery, tonight is the first opportunity I have had to stand in this chamber and thank each and every essential worker for their efforts in getting Australia through this economic crisis and this health crisis. Throughout this crisis I've been thinking about them, their families and the work that they do. I've also had these words ringing in my ears—or should I call them a slogan? Many in this place have heard this term before: the politics of envy. It's used from time to time and it's an accusation that's been levelled at the working class of this country by the organised Right for years. It has been used whenever demands have grown for fairer taxation, improved workplace conditions, greater unionisation and better pay.

Like most of the Australian Right's favourite modern slogans, it originated from an American think tank. Back in the 1990s it was a tactical device, and it has been shared globally and used by right-wing politicians to diminish working-class ambition in America, Britain and Australia and, most infamously, by former Prime Minister John Howard. We know that Senator Cormann was especially fond of invoking the slogan to respond to Labor's questions before the pandemic about Australia's low wage growth, accusing Labor of waging a class war by even asking questions about what workers were being paid.

When those comments about class and envy are made in this place, they always make me flinch. That's because they're designed to make me feel that way. They're designed to make workers feel that way. Those comments frame the organised working class as jealous of wealthy Australians, implying that workers are resentful of what they do not have and that is what drives their ambition. Using the term 'the politics of envy' isn't designed to just dismiss economic demands for fairness; it's how they demobilise workers by implying that they should be personally ashamed of standing up for themselves in the first place—as if asking for a fair share is somehow a character flaw.

My mum is a nurse and, like many other essential workers, she is working throughout this pandemic. Workers like my mum don't ask for much; they've just asked for fairness. Pre coronavirus they asked for that and they were told that they were asking for too much. Throughout this pandemic, workers like nurses have been on the frontline. They are testing and treating COVID-19 patients, even receiving abuse as they do that work. Aged-care workers have tended to our elderly, fighting to keep spirits afloat during a time when safety precautions force families to share milestones through glass windows.

In other corners of the economy, in supermarkets, we've seen people restocking shelves at night and standing behind makeshift screens at checkouts. Public servants have kept legislation drafted, protected our borders and managed lines of the unemployed through Centrelink. Workers in factories, warehouses, manufacturing and delivery have tried to meet the unprecedented and unforeseen new demands on how everyone feeds and maintains their households. Meanwhile, childhood educators have been caring for children of essential workers and teachers have been teaching face-to-face and remotely.

The community has been showing its appreciation for the workers keeping Australia functional. In parts of the country we've seen 'adopt a healthcare worker' programs making sure that groceries are bought and pets are walked for those essential workers. Local restaurants have even been providing frontline workers with meals bought by grateful citizens, and this crisis has created an opportunity for Australia to appreciate the essential work of so many industries that were previously considered peripheral. That some of these workers remain amongst Australia's lowest paid really is a market failure.

Many of these industries are also highly feminised workforces. This so-called women's work has proven to be important work during this most important time. And these workers have something else in common: most are in highly unionised industries and have confidence in doing what they are doing—and these have become highly dangerous jobs during this pandemic—because they know that they have better collective protection and job security in their unions.

Throughout this crisis, this unionisation has maximised the safety and efficiency of essential systems—the very same unionisation that the political Right have denigrated and threatened to destroy for decades. Here is the predicament for the government and for our country: the very same workers who have made demands for fair pay and fair working conditions, for more funding, for classrooms, for nurse-to-patient ratios and for ships and trains to be built on Australian soil—who have been written off as being envious and asking for too much—are the ones who have kept this country running during our greatest health and economic crisis. It's not so easy to demonise workers as 'envious' when they're literally risking their lives to care for children, nurse the sick or manufacture the masks and hand sanitiser that we need to stop the spread.

When we do recover from this pandemic, the fresh respect for workers that's bloomed in the electorate presents an opportunity to work together in rebuilding our economy, but only if conservatives abandon their old insults and an anti-worker agenda that they camouflage. So far we haven't seen the self-reflection or redirection that is needed by this government to get our recovery right. And the shine of what once was a rally cry of 'team Australia' has quickly worn off, to the extent that now Australians are asking, 'Who is actually on this team?' After guaranteeing that JobKeeper would stay in place as legislated, this government will cut off childcare workers from that scheme. They were essential workers two months ago, but now they're the first to get the chop. And 91 per cent of early childhood educators are women; 40 per cent are under 30. They are the ones to be told, 'You are now on your own.'

The question now is, who is next? We know that the government has set up working groups on IR reform, instructing parties to put their weapons down. But they will have said that they will push ahead with reform whether or not there is consensus between workers and businesses. Will the government put its own weapons and rhetoric down and not seek to use this economic recession as an opportunity to weaken workplaces, and protect the people who protected us? Well, we know that members of the government are taking advantage of this crisis to attack the industry super funds and push for schemes that would diminish the retirement savings of essential workers who have got us through this crisis. Let us be very clear: the super wars are a war on workers and their right to have dignity in retirement. What we need now isn't a war on workers or class warfare. What we need is a government to do the right thing for every Australian.

Just yesterday the Treasurer declared that the next election will be a contest over the role of government. Even in a time of crisis, the government is focused on slogans and electioneering, instead of governing, leading or bringing this country together. Even in the middle of a crisis, they are worried about their own jobs instead of the jobs of other Australians.

As I said when I started my contribution tonight, I remind all Australian workers to listen closely for those conservative buzzwords during our economic recovery. If the government's old 'politics of envy' slogans re-emerge after this, I hope that they make you flinch, too. As a community we should spurn any notion that Australian workers don't have the right to ask for their fair share. They are not envious; they are essential.