Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to give tribute to the very hard work of the SDA 'shoppies' union, who, along with others in the trade union movement, notably the ASU and the ANMF, fought very, very hard in the last parliament to make sure that superannuation goes to all workers.

I note that Senator Bragg was talking about people returning to work. When they return to work, even if they earn under $450, they will be entitled to super. In the last parliament, I was very proud to vote for that at the end of a long, successfully fought campaign. Over too many years, the last nine years, the government was very resistant to this, but, finally, it was delivered. This is a very significant improvement for workers in Australia.

The SDA members, over 200,000 in number, and the 1.3 million workers that exist in the sector in retail, fast food, warehousing, hairdressing, beauty, pharmacy and online retail and modelling are predominantly women. Women, who are 60 per cent of the workforce, or approximately 131,000; workers under 35, 57 per cent, or approximately 120,000 Australians; and low-income earners in retail and food services, which are two of the three lowest median weekly earnings in Australia, will get the benefit of now having a superannuation contribution on every hour that they work and every dollar that they earn.

Now, there's so much more that needs to be done. Superannuation remains inaccessible for some workers. Those in the gig economy who were in this building last week spoke about how not only have they not got superannuation being paid anymore; they've had to dip into their super, as the business model, the Amazon business model, has been attacking their capacity to even make ends meet. There's much more work to do with superannuation, but it's a Labor government in now, and we'll be making sure Australians get their fair share— (Time expired)