Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum, and I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

Mr President, the Fair Work Amendment (Equal Pay for Equal Work) Bill 2022 amends the Fair Work Act 2009 for labour hire workers covered by certain modern awards, to ensure that the rate of pay being offered to labour hire workers is the same or greater as for directly employed workers doing the same job.

This bill relates to the rate of pay including allowances and overtime.

It is not retrospective and relates to a small number of specific awards.

The Fair Work Amendment (Equal Pay for Equal Work) Bill 2022 is designed to stop the exploitation and limit the use of labour hire contracts by removing the incentive for employers to do so, which is lower wages.

This bill is encouraging employers to make improved provision for their labour requirements by retaining existing staff in permanent work arrangements, while training new staff through apprenticeships and traineeships.

The Fair Work Amendment (Equal Pay for Equal Work) Bill 2022 is designed to limit the operation of labour hire contracts by removing the incentive for employers to use them, which is lower wages.

One Nation accepts that there are situations where a labour hire contract is useful. This would include starting new employees on a contract for a probationary period, sudden spikes in labour demand, flexibility in staffing arrangements across locations and once-offs like a site closure.

This bill does not stop an employer using labour hire contracts. It does stop the employer from making the employee pay for the contract through lower wages.

Mr President, do you remember when employers actually employed people - gave them holidays and sick pay and treated workers like assets to be nurtured and developed instead of liabilities to be limited?

Do you remember when a breadwinner could provide for the family on one wage, and still buy a home and a car and have holidays?

Australia is no poorer a country than when this was normal. In fact, we are richer now. So why is it becoming harder and harder for breadwinners to provide for their families?

Median wages in Australia have not increased in 30 years. In that time housing, education and health care have each increased in price by 300%.

If everyday Australians feel like they are working harder and going backwards it is because they are.

Labour hire contracts are one of the devices large corporations are using to drive down wages in industries that have traditionally provided breadwinner incomes.

Labour hire is being used to avoid the responsibility that large corporations have to plan their own forward labour requirements. This traditionally involves apprentices and traineeships. This is not an expense, it is an investment.

When properly and honestly managed this increases productivity and increases profits.

This bill is encouraging employers to make improved provision for their labour requirements.

The Fair Work Commission adjudicates enterprise agreements. The provisions in the Fair Work Amendment (Equal Pay for Equal Work) Bill 2022 provide guidance and instruction to the Fair Work Commission, by effectively requiring an equal pay for equal work provision to be included in enterprise agreements entered into under certain awards.

The provision is award-based to allow, as much as possible, for wages to be decided by negotiation between employee and employer, and where applicable unions and subject to award provisions.

Where there has been a regulatory distortion or a failure in the balance of market power this new provision can be employed to restore fairness. The choice of awards to which the provision will initially apply is based on two factors:

1) A known failure in the market;

2) Acting to prevent the potential for labour hire contracts to affect industries covered by awards that do not provide for casual employment. This may be owing to the need for safety protections for workers.

Subsection 333B(4) of the Fair Work Act 2009, as inserted by the Fair Work Amendment (Equal Pay for Equal Work) Bill 2022, allows the Minister to add additional awards by way of disallowable instrument. This provides the Minister with a quick response framework when a failure in the balance of market power appears.

A disallowable instrument can be disallowed by either House of Parliament. This ensures a certain level of checks and balances on the expansion of these provisions.

In addition to situations where employers are using a mix of contract and directly-employed employees, the Fair Work Amendment (Equal Pay for Equal Work) Bill 2022 makes allowance for a situation where a labour hire arrangement has replaced all of the workers on a roster with contract employees.

In this situation, the rate of pay being offered by that labour hire contract would be assessed against similar rates of pay for directly employed workers in that industry.

Penalties are provided for non-compliance by a labour hire employer that are in keeping with similar penalties already included in the Fair Work Act 2009.

This bill only applies to the following awards:

1. The Black Coal Mining Industry Award 2010 which contains recently-added provisions for casuals. This award has a long history of labour hire contracts being used to destroy hard-won entitlements and protections for workers.

2. The Aircraft Cabin Crew Award 2020. Recently airlines have been replacing long-existing direct employment agreements with labour hire agreements that substantially undercut wages in the sector. These contracts are being advanced in the name of flexibility, which does not explain the lower rate of pay being offered.

3. The following 4 awards are included as they currently do not have provision for casual employment:

a) the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Enterprise Award 2016;

b) the Fire Fighting Industry Award 2020;

c) the Maritime Offshore Oil and Gas Award 2020;

d) the Seagoing Industry Award 2020.

Casual employment in these industries is unwise given the safety issues inherent in each industry and the need to respond to that with settled, trained staff.

While labour hire contracts have not become a problem in these industries, inclusion in this bill is partly for completeness, and partly to make sure they do not become a problem.

Mr President, I commenced my working life as a coalface miner, for 3 years, mostly in the underground mines across 5 regions in Australia.

I then proceeded to skill up and eventually moved on to mine management, before completing an Honours Degree in Engineering and a Master in Business Administration from the University of Chicago.

My father was for a time Chief Inspector of Coal Mines under Premier Bjelke Petersen. He was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for eliminating black lung in Queensland Coal Mines.

For his work in improving mine safety he was inducted into the Australian Mining Hall of Fame.

Coal mining is in my blood.

The exploitation I have seen in the coal mining industry is a disgrace.

This bill is the product of work I have been doing for years with Hunter Valley Coal miners.

One Nation called out the Federal Government, mine employers, mining industry associations, union bosses and the Labor Party for not supporting casual coal miners.

At the Job Security Inquiry hearings in Townsville in 2021, to their credit, senior national offices of the CFMEU agreed their union had ignored casuals.

At the Grosvenor Mine Explosion Inquiry, One Nation presented a submission calling for protections for Queensland's casual coal miners who are sacked if they speak up about safety.

One Nation was instrumental in achieving positive change to the Fair Work Act in 2021 including:

1. Protections for casual workers which included adding them to the definition in the Black Coal CMIA;

2. Introduced casual conversion rights for workers - casual to permanent;

3. Introduced protections for small businesses from being caught in the net of red tape and compliance in regard to casual conversion where it was not in anyone's interest to have such a clause;

4. advocating for improvements to work health and safety incident reporting, proper payment of workers compensation, accident pay and freedom of speech for casuals who are threatened with the sack if they speak up;

5. holding Coal LSL to account for disadvantaging casual coal miners (KPMG review);

Complaints from the Hunter Valley and central Queensland casual coal miners have demonstrated some of the many 'cracks' in Australia's IR system.

What was revealed from a review of some enterprise agreements was the absolute lack of respect and the illegal, immoral and unethical behaviour of employers who failed to protect casual workers and union bosses who simply did not care for miners even if they were union members.

This bill continues One Nation's efforts to provide fair pay and working conditions for Australian workers.

I recommend the bill to the Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.