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representatives vote 2023-12-07#4
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2024-04-20 15:40:56
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Title
Bills — Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023; Consideration of Senate Message- Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 - Consideration of Senate Message - Put the question
Description
<p class="speaker">Milton Dick</p><p>I understand that it is the wish of the House to consider the amendments together.</p> <p class="speaker">Tony Burke</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">That the House:</p><p class="italic">(1) acknowledges the position previously taken by the House that the division of a bill in the House in which it did not originate is undesirable;</p><p class="italic">(2) without departing from this position, distinguishes this occasion on the basis that it involves the division of a Government bill in the Senate, at the initiation of the Government, setting it apart from previous occurrences;</p><p class="italic">(3) therefore concurs with this action taken by the Senate on this occasion; and</p><p class="italic">(4) agrees to the amendments made by the Senate.</p><p>We have a chance right now to close loopholes that have been undermining pay and safety in the workplace. We have an opportunity as a House right now to change the law to criminalise wage theft, to stop companies using labour hire arrangements as a way to cut pay, to change the law to ensure better support for first responders with PTSD, to change the law to protect workers subjected to family and domestic violence from discrimination at work, to change the law to expand the functions of the asbestos agency to also include people affected by silica and to close the loophole in which large businesses claim small business exemptions during insolvency as a way of avoiding redundancy payments.</p><p>We hear so many times in this House about the challenges people are facing with cost of living. There is no stronger way of acting on cost of living than to improve people's wages. There are no people with a worse wages deal than the people who are having their wages stolen. We should never forgot the 7-Eleven footage of the worker being marched across to the ATM in the corner, having to take out their pay that had just been deposited and hand half their pay to their employer, knowing full well that if they had walked around behind the counter and taken the exact same money out of the till, it would have been the worker who had committed the criminal offence. It should be against the law for a worker to steal from the employer. As of today, we should change the law so it's illegal for an employer to steal from a worker.</p><p>I want to acknowledge this is in front of us today because of good work that has happened in the Senate involving the Senate crossbench. I want to acknowledge the constructive role played by the Senate crossbench, including the Australian Greens. In particular, I acknowledge the member for Melbourne and Senator Barbara Pocock. I want to acknowledge Senator David Pocock, Senator Jacqui Lambie, Senator Tammy Tyrrell and Senator Lidia Thorpe. All these people have decided to stand on the side of working Australians.</p><p>I am proud to be part of a government that made a decision that it had been going on too long in this place that every time someone found a loophole that would undermine tax revenue, the parliament would come in with a taxation laws amendment bill to protect the revenue of government. But when a dodgy employer came up with a way to cut the revenue that is meant to go into the bank account of a worker, for too long this parliament has done nothing. Well, that should end today and that should end with this vote that will come today.</p><p>I say to those opposite: 34 times voting to keep wages down probably ought to be enough. It was only a week ago those opposite went through a series of measures in this bill and said, 'Well, if the Senate agrees, and you can do it right now, what is standing in the way?' Well, I say to those opposite: the Senate agrees we can do it right now. Don't stand in the way. Australian workers have a right to have safer workplaces and we can legislate for that right now. Australian workers have a right to know that we will close the loopholes, in particular the labour hire loophole and wage theft that have been used to hit the pay packets of Australian workers. If those opposite have any integrity when it comes to claiming that they care about issues of cost of living, step one is to give people better pay packets. We have the chance to do that today. I commend the resolution to the House.</p> <p class="speaker">Paul Fletcher</p><p>This is a very sad day for keeping the cost of living low and creating more jobs. This is a very sad day for all of those who take a risk to create jobs and opportunities, because Australian businesses have been sold out today by the Albanese Labor government. They've been sold out by Senate crossbenchers who have teamed up in a dirty deal with this government to pass highly damaging changes to this country's industrial relations system.</p><p>Today the unions, the paymasters of this government, are celebrating their Christmas gift while Australians who are grappling with a cost-of-living crisis will foot the bill. The simple fact is that we've seen members of the crossbench side with the government to pass through highly damaging, prescriptive, interventionist, ill-thought-through, productivity-sapping, prosperity-damaging regulation before it has been properly scrutinised through the Senate inquiry process. We've seen something that has been an absolute trademark of the way this government operates.</p><p>When they know they're doing something grubby, something to be ashamed of and something that will not stand up to scrutiny in the full light of the examination process, they use every trick in the book of parliamentary process to avoid the scrutiny that the Australian people expect their parliament will be able to carry out on their behalf. They have been desperate to rush through this legislation, because they've always wanted to hide the true intent of this legislation. What we've seen from this government is, at every stage, every possible sneaky, tricky mechanism to avoid debate, avoid scrutiny and resort to untruths because they knew they could not, in the court of public opinion, make an objective, fact based case for this set of payback measures.</p><p>This is dancing to the tune of the union bosses and running through the to-do list that the union bosses have had for years and years, all while the percentage of Australians who are actually members of unions sinks and sinks and sinks. Now only eight per cent of private sector employees are members of a union. But, of course, this government knows who pays its bills and pays the donations. Do not be fooled; this is what this is all about. We know that this government does not have the right priorities.</p><p>This is a desperate ploy by an embattled government. They're trying to get a headline because they know they've had an absolutely dreadful month. They know that the Australian people are reeling at the shock of nearly 150 hard-core criminals being let out while the two hapless and hopeless ministers yawn and say, 'There's nothing we can do about it.' They've been desperate to bring on some kind of political fix, and so they've done a deal which has led to what we are seeing. The fact is that the costs that are incurred as a result of these legislative changes will ultimately be passed on to 26 million Australians. These are changes that are incompatible with a modern labour market that needs to be flexible, dynamic and rewarding for workers.</p><p>This will be a particularly devastating blow to this country's mining and resources sector, which is the engine room of the Australian economy. Look at the Labor Party and the Greens. Who do they think pays the taxes and the royalties? Who pays for the roads, schools and hospitals? Why is this government determined to try and damage the industries that are so central to the prosperity of this nation? That is what this legislation is about.</p><p>The process that has occurred here has been appalling. The time that has been available is, frankly, entirely unsatisfactory. The Australian people would be absolutely shocked if they knew the process this government has embarked on. I seek leave to move the consequent amendments, amendments (1) to (4), as circulated in my name, together.</p><p>Leave granted.</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">(1) Senate amendment (1), subparagraph (b)(vi), omit the subparagraph, substitute:</p><p class="italic">(va) Part 6 (closing the labour hire loophole);</p><p class="italic">(vi) Part 7 (workplace delegates' rights);</p><p class="italic">(2) Senate amendment (1), subparagraph (b)(xi), after the subparagraph, insert:</p><p class="italic">(xia) Part 14A (amendments relating to mediation and conciliation conference orders made under section 448A of the <i>Fair Work Act 2009</i>);</p><p class="italic">(3) Senate amendment (3) (proposed new table items 7, 8 and 20A in subclause 2(1) of the Bill), omit the table items.</p><p class="italic">(4) Senate amendment (9) (proposed new Divisions 3, 4 and 6 of Part 15 of the <i>Fair Work Act 2009</i>), omit the Divisions.</p><p>I don't pretend in any way that these amendments make this acceptable, but they're a desperate attempt to try to address some of the most appalling aspects of this legislation.</p> <p class="speaker">Milton Dick</p><p>Before I call the Prime Minister, the member for Hawke and the member for Hunter are not in their seats. Interjecting while out of your seat is highly disorderly. If that continues, they will be warned.</p> <p class="speaker">Anthony Albanese</p><p>I rise to support the adoption of the Senate amendments and the passing of the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023. Those opposite, clearly, are going to vote against it. That's what they do. They just don't like workers getting a fair go. They don't like workers being properly paid. What is scary about this bill? What this bill provides for is common sense, decency and fairness. It is stopping companies underpaying workers through the use of labour hire. It is criminalising intentional wage theft. It is introducing a new criminal offence of industrial manslaughter. It is better supporting first responders with PTSD. It is better protecting workers subjected to family and domestic violence from discrimination at work. It is expanding the functions of the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency to include silica. It is closing the loophole in which large businesses claim small-business exemptions during insolvency to avoid redundancy payments to people who've lost their jobs.</p><p>This is one of those times where the Australian interest is quite clear. This is a balanced industrial relations legislation designed to also make sure that it benefits those businesses that are doing the right thing. If you have two companies competing and one of them is using labour hire loopholes in order to drive down their costs and gain an unfair advantage against a company that is sticking to enterprise agreements and paying people proper wages and conditions, then what you do over a very short period of time is get a race to the bottom. We know that that was their conscious policy. A deliberate design feature of the coalition's economic architecture was low wage growth.</p><p>When we passed the first tranche of legislation, do you remember what they said? November 2022, the Leader of the Opposition: 'Labor's laws will revive the crippling economy-wide strikes.' Maybe I've missed them! Industrial disputes and days lost are down, not up, from when they were in government. The shadow minister, Senator Cash, said it would return Australia to the dark ages, would close down the economy and would leave supermarket shelves bare.</p><p>The truth is that there are now more than 14 million Australians in jobs for the first time, there are a record number of women in full-time employment, real wages have grown two quarters in a row and there are record participation rates. We have had an unemployment rate with a three in front of it more times since we have been in government than previously since records began, by many times. There have been fewer days lost to industrial disputes. It was 128,000 in their last quarter; the most recent quarter was 10,200.</p> <p class="speaker">Milton Dick</p><p>The member for Petrie will cease interjecting.</p> <p class="speaker">Anthony Albanese</p><p>We know, of course, that they continue to out themselves about what their views are. Today Senator Cash said:</p><p class="italic">Those on the coalition side of the chamber will always stand with the employers of Australia.</p><p>There it is: with the employers; against the workers. We recognise that good employers value their workers. That's why this is connected to enterprise bargaining. That's why this will encourage good behaviour. That's why, for all their bleating about Qantas, which is one of the companies that have used labour hire loopholes in order to have people working side by side with the same experience and the same conditions to drive down their wages, we don't hear anything about that now. They will never stand up for working people. That is the truth.</p><p>Remember when during the election campaign the former Prime Minister said any increase in the minimum wage would wreck the economy? That is what they said. I stood proudly with a $1 coin during that election campaign and proudly said that I didn't want people to fall behind. This legislation is about people getting ahead. Those opposite can't talk about cost of living when they support wages being in decline. We on this side support good employers and we support workers. <i>(Time expired)</i></p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
- The majority voted in favour of a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2023-12-07.147.1):
- > *That the question be now put.*
- In other words, they voted to end debate and instead vote on [the matter](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/divisions/representatives/2023-12-07/5) straight away.
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