Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak up for fairness and equality, specifically in support of the fundamental notion that those who are doing the same job should be treated in the same way, especially when it comes to wages and conditions. This is a principle that many working people have fought and struggled in support of, for so many years. One would hope that in modern-day Australia this value of fairness and equity would be well enshrined by now, and one could certainly be forgiven for assuming that the principle of 'same job, same pay' would be upheld within the Australian Public Service, an institution that should be setting the standard for employment conditions for our entire national workforce. But, sadly, many thousands of Australians who work for the Commonwealth government know only too well that this is not the case, because under the Scott Morrison-Barnaby Joyce government we have seen an absolute explosion of the use of labour hire across all departments within our national Public Service. That is to say, we are seeing a big increase in the number of staff who do the work of the Commonwealth government but are not directly employed by the government. The sad truth is that those workers employed through labour hire firms to work for the Commonwealth are not treated equally to the APS staff that they work alongside. Invariably and inevitably, these labour hire workers earn far less—and receive far less in entitlements and training—than their permanent counterparts in secure jobs.

How insidious and widespread is the use of labour hire by the Australian Public Service? We don't exactly know, but we should. According to the Community and Public Sector Union there are at least 20,000 labour hire workers working alongside permanent staff in the Australian Public Service. In my home state of Tasmania, there are at least 350 labour hire staff working for the Commonwealth government, with the CPSU estimating the real figure could be as high as 500 positions. By some estimates, in some departments it may well be as high as 42 per cent of the total workforce. That's according to a Canberra Times analysis from this year that also found contracted labour averaged one in five workers across the 14 Commonwealth government departments. That analysis found the Department of Veterans' Affairs topped out with a figure of 42 per cent of staff engaged through labour hire firms—almost one in two workers. It's extraordinary, unnecessary, unfair and costly to the Commonwealth. This practice has to change. It's a disservice both to the workers employed directly by the APS and to the labour hire workers who work alongside them. It's a disservice to the nation, it's costly and it's just not right. We should expect more from our own national government, a supposed model employer.

Labor wants to do something about it. We've got the backs of working people right across this country, particularly those in insecure work, and we've got the backs of the many thousands of Australians who work in public service for the Australian people. A Labor government will end the practice of paying labour hire workers less than those who are directly employed by the employer when they are actually doing exactly the same job. The present system is a distortion, and an unfair one at that, and it's not in the interests of taxpayers. Under the Morrison-Joyce government, taxpayer funds have been gushing into the coffers of expensive labour-hire firms who then pocket the funds while starting their workers on thinned-out pay packets and slimmed-down conditions. Labor will seek to rein in this wasteful practice.

An Albanese Labor government will conduct an audit of employment across the entire APS to weed out those areas where temporary forms of work are being used in an inappropriate manner. Instead of using it to line the pockets of the big labour hire firms, an Albanese Labor government will use precious taxpayers' money wisely, fairly and sensibly by employing those who work for the Commonwealth government directly in our Australian Public Service with secure jobs and fair pay and conditions, and we'll make sure that they have a fair bargaining framework. But it won't stop there. Our commitment to fairness and equality in the workplace and the notion of 'same job, same pay' extends beyond our Public Service to the entire workforce. In fact, so committed is Labor to achieving this principle, we're prepared to give the government an opportunity to do it for us. They can support Labor's 'same job, same pay' bill. They only have to have the workers' best interests at heart.