Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to congratulate the South Australian submarine workers at the ASC and their representatives at the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. This success that they've seen is the culmination of a very, very long battle to see pay parity between the South Australian workers and the Western Australian workers. We've seen that come to fruition. South Australian workers will now see an average increase of 18.5 per cent; that is for the trades and the operator support workers at the maintenance and sustainment facility. It is a great outcome. We in the Albanese government believe that if you're doing the same job you should receive the same pay; we see that as a fundamental tenet of fairness. It is really great to see that outcome.

I've spent time with the AMWU while they've been working through this campaign. I've met with workers from the facility and heard their stories. In some instances they were the ones shipped over to WA to train those other workers who were getting paid more than them because that was allowed in our system in this country under the coalition government. Under us, that's not the case. We're delighted to see same job, same pay come to fruition and to start to see this fairness come across our industrial relations system. Instead of seeing what we have seen for 10 years, which is wage stagnation, we're starting to see some real good green shoots across our economy. We've prioritised closing those labour loopholes and ensuring better working conditions for Australian workers.

As part of our historic 'closing loopholes' legislation, labour hire workers can now apply to receive the full rate of pay as comparable to the direct employees they work alongside, shoulder to shoulder, every day, undertaking the same jobs—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Grogan, your time has expired. Was there a mistake? Set the clock for two minutes. My apologies.

Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's okay! These laws came into being at the start of this month. We've started to see some improvements already. One of the latest examples—and Minister Watt referred to it in question time earlier this week—is Metcash. In South Australia they've got labour hire workers who undertake exactly the same training, go to the same meetings and are on exactly the same rosters, yet were not being paid the same amount—to the tune, for some of those workers, of $15,000 a year. That is no longer the case. Thanks to these laws that close those loopholes, there is now fairness across that site; people who are doing the same work will now get the same pay. That is all about fairness in our workplace, which is what the Albanese Labor government is all about—fair, collaborative workplaces, where we have employers, unions and workers working together for a great outcome, for fewer industrial disputes and for more harmony and fairness in our workplaces. That's what we want to see.