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

As the Morrison government continues to congratulate itself on a job well done and use slogans and advertising to try to convince Australians that they are on top of our economic recovery, the truth about our economy right now is that people are hurting and they are worried about the future. The latest wage data shows that wages grew slower in the past 12 months than ever before. It has been a tough year. But this data is off the back of years and years of stagnant wage growth under this government before the pandemic even hit.

On top of low wage growth, we know that we have a crisis of insecure work in this country. The pandemic highlighted this crisis and it has made it worse. We've got used to insecure work; we've almost come to accept it. The workers that we needed to get us through the pandemic were employed in some of the worst examples of insecure work that we have seen, and that has impacted our health response. We've heard on many occasions of aged-care workers and security guards who had to have a second job because their first job was too insecure and didn't provide the security of a full-time job that they needed. It has also impacted our economic response, because it will take longer for our economy to recover if more jobs are insecure. The government chose to exclude casual workers from JobKeeper, yet so many of the workers who were directly impacted by the shutdowns needed to get us through this pandemic were in highly casualised workforces. People in the arts and entertainment sector, hospitality workers, retail workers—all of these workers were already in casual and insecure work, and yet the government chose to exclude casual workers from the JobKeeper scheme.

Our economy cannot recover if Australians don't have good, secure jobs. Maybe some of those opposite don't understand what it's like to have a casual, insecure job. I can tell you that not knowing when your next shift is going to be impacts your entire life. Inversely, we know that a good, secure job gives you the confidence to spend money in your local businesses, in local shops, in your community. It gives you the confidence to pay for extra health appointments, to get check-ups that you might need, to plan for the future, to save for a house, to make sure that you've got a good, dignified retirement. You can't do those things if you don't know when your next shift is coming.

Workers around the country this Christmas won't be having a very good Christmas. They are not out there high-fiving each other about this government's so-called comeback. It won't be a great Christmas this year for workers in the mining industry, who are facing the prospect of becoming permanent casuals. We know that casualisation has been rife in the mining industry for years. This government have stood up and said they would do something about it. They don't say it here while they're standing in the chamber, but they say it when they're standing on the ground in central Queensland—the member for Dawson and Senator Canavan often tell people from the mining industry that they will do something to fix casualisation. But, when given the chance to do something about this, the government are instead intervening in a High Court case that would overturn a decision that stops mining companies from making workers permanent casuals. That is what the government are doing. And we need to judge the government on their actions, not on what they say when they're standing in central Queensland.

It won't be a great Christmas for workers who work for BHP under their operations services enterprise agreement. They have had a win: they had the EBA overturned, and thank goodness, because this was a shoddy agreement to start with. It was agreed with a couple of people in Western Australia. Nine people decided what sort of EBA would apply to thousands of workers in central Queensland. But this government has done nothing—nothing—to step in and stop that sort of thing from happening, to stop casualisation in the industry or to make sure that people have more secure work in these industries.

It won't be a very good Christmas this year for workers in the meat- and food-processing industry. They have been hit incredibly hard by this pandemic. I had the chance to meet many of them in Brisbane last week, and I thank the AMIEU for giving me the opportunity to listen directly to those workers and to understand what they're going through in their workplaces. Most recently JBS Dinmore announced that 600 Australian workers had lost their jobs. That is 600 workers who won't have a job this Christmas. And, when the government had the chance to extend JobKeeper to industries like the meatworkers industry and to businesses like JBS, they didn't take that chance. Josh Frydenberg refused to sign. Those jobs could have been saved if this government had stepped in.

We know that Qantas workers will not be having a very good Christmas this year, because this week we found out that 2,000 ground crew jobs will be outsourced. That includes 50 jobs in Cairns, in regional Queensland, where I live. Outsourcing doesn't mean that the work doesn't need to be done. We know that now. It doesn't mean that the job doesn't need to be done. It just means that Qantas are saying that they would prefer for that work to be done by someone who has a less secure job. This government have turned their backs on aviation workers. They've had plenty of subsidies and grants, and even JobKeeper, paid to Qantas. The business has said that it will be back in the black next year. But these workers won't have a job. They'll have to bid for their jobs, and they're having to compete for jobs with people on labour hire contracts in casual employment—insecure work.

We need to learn the lessons that this pandemic has taught us, and one of the things the pandemic has shown us is that insecure work is damaging to the economy and it's damaging to the community. It's shown us that we need to make sure that people have secure jobs, because it's good for our economy. All we have got from this government, from its leadership right down to its backbench, is more attacks on working people and more pushes to make sure that people have less secure work. Next week, the government will be bringing IR legislation out publicly for the first time. We hear a lot from this government about everyone playing their part in the so-called 'Team Australia' recovery. They will probably say things along the lines of, 'What our economy and labour market need is more flexibility.' But can I tell you, Mr President, that flexibility is often a vehicle for increasing insecurity. It is a word that is used instead of 'insecurity'. When the government say 'flexibility', what they mean is insecurity. I was shocked today—shocked—to hear Senator Stoker, a Queenslander, actually blame Qantas workers for not accepting more flexible working conditions and for this leading to their own redundancies. She blamed them for their own redundancies because they had not accepted more flexible working conditions.

Every time the government says flexible, what they mean is insecure. Insecure work is bad for workers, bad for families and bad for our economy. We'll have an opportunity, at the end of this pandemic, to make sure that more people are in secure jobs. But this government have shown during this pandemic that they are not willing to stand up for workers or to do the hard work to make sure people have good working conditions and good, secure jobs. That is very concerning, because it means that our economy and our recovery will take longer under this government, and it means that people will not have the jobs that they need this Christmas to feel secure, to take care of their families and to plan for the future.

Senate adjourned at 17:56