Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, I have great news: workers and unions around Australia are winning pay rises thanks to the same job, same pay laws that the Albanese government passed at the end of last year. Labor and unions have fought for same job, same pay laws for years, and at every stage we've faced staunch opposition from the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation. Who can forget the Liberal minister Paul Fletcher saying in 2022 that the issue of labour hire workers being ripped off through lower pay agreements was 'a made-up issue'?

Let's run through the wins workers are already seeing on this so-called 'made-up issue'. A headline in the Australian was 'Miners win same pay for same job wage rises'. The article says:

More than 300 labour hire workers at Batchfire's Callide mine in central Queensland … gain pay rises of up to $20,000 a year following the first same-job same-pay order made by the Fair Work Commission.

The landmark … decision means 324 labour hire mine workers employed by Workpac at … Biloela … have their pay increased from November 1 …

At that mine, over 60 per cent of the workers were employed on a lower-paying labour hire agreement. Now, thanks to Labor's same job, same pay laws and the Mining and Energy Union, they'll see a pay rise of up to $20,000.

You might think the local MP for Biloela would support pay rises of $20,000 for hundreds of his constituents who were being ripped off by labour hire companies and big miners, but you'd be wrong, because, like the rest of the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation, the member for Flynn, Colin Boyce, voted against those laws and against pay rises for mine workers in his own electorate. I don't know how Mr Boyce can go back to his electorate, look a labour hire worker or their family in the eye and explain his vote. It's a disgrace.

Everyone knows that the biggest rip-off merchants in the mining industry are BHP. Mr Boyce; the opposition leader, Mr Dutton; and the rest of the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation love nothing more than coming in here and doing the bidding of their BHP paymasters. At the inquiry into the closing the loopholes bill, we heard from workers from BHP mines across the Bowen Basin. Brodie Allen, a mineworker at their Blackwater mine, told us:

I've been coalmining and in the industry for seven years. I've been labour hire the entire time, so I go in and do the same job as everybody else, but I'm paid $40,000 less a year to do the exact same thing.

Maybe his local member, Mr Boyce, can explain to him how that's fair.

The Mining and Energy Union has 10 more same job, same pay applications for workers at BHP coalmines across the Bowen Basin, including at Peak Downs, Saraji, and Goonyella Riverside, and also at BHP's Rix's Creek mine, in the Hunter Valley. At every one of these mines, the Mining and Energy Union is using same job, same pay laws to seek further pay increases between $10,000 and $40,000, and the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation have voted against those pay rises.

But it does not stop there. On 23 May, a headline in the Australian was 'Workers in $30,000 same job same pay win'. That win was because Thiess had agreed to directly employ 27 labour hire workers at the Mount Pleasant coalmine, in the Hunter. For years, those workers had been paid $30,000 less than permanent staff for doing the exact same job—until now. I'm pleased to inform you that the Labor member for Hunter, Dan Repacholi, who is former coalminer himself, is a strong supporter of same job, same pay. In his speech on the bill, Dan said:

This is very personal to me.

…    …   …

This is really important reform in order to improve job security, wages and conditions …

If you're a mineworker in Central Queensland or the Hunter Valley or anywhere around Australia, it's Labor that voted for your pay to go up. The Liberals, Nationals and One Nation will always sell you out to their Minerals Council paymasters.