Labour Hire Practices

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:39): Earlier today, representatives of the Labor Party and the crossbench gathered on the steps of this place to stand against the Marshall Liberal government's attempt to repeal legislation that both protects vulnerable workers and good employees in the labour hire sector. Let us make no mistake, while I will not discuss the bill, those workers need protection. It is an idea we should all support.

This government loves to use language around the idea of red tape. They are practically obsessed with this phrase and in the other place they deploy it all the time; they attribute this idea of red tape, quite erroneously, a tremendous amount of potency. They say that red tape strangles things, they say that red tape stands in the way of things, red tape makes it harder to do things, red tape ate their homework. The key point here is: like any advert for a product that no-one wants to buy, you make it about something else. It is about selling something. Red tape is a red herring.

The removal of basic protections like getting paid fairly for a fair day's work cannot be about red tape. Abolishing protections like we have now for those in labour hire sends an extremely specific message, which is this: we do not want scrutiny of employers and we do not think it is important to provide protections for workers. That is what this government is really saying. That is the product they are selling and that is why they need red herrings to sell it. It is not just the workers who lose out here. Employers who are interested in doing the right thing have absolutely nothing to fear from protections for workers. In actual fact, things like licensing protections protect good employers from being brought into disrepute by the actions of dodgy employers.

A great example of this is how many employers were happy to participate in licensing protections. They submitted applications which this government did not accept. Why? Perhaps because they oppose these protections for ideological reasons not practical ones. Who knows? What we do know is regulation prevents exploitation of the vulnerable. Removing regulation enables it. And, there it is. It is that simple. Licensing aims to prevent unscrupulous employers from exploiting the vulnerable.

In the other place, the Attorney-General has criticised the previous Labor government's protections because, amongst other things, she says that it gives power to the unions. That is such a big part of what it comes down to so often for Marshall's Liberals: ideology, red herrings, selling something. Unions exist to protect workers. They exist to protect workers from unscrupulous bosses and, if at all possible, to protect the community from the destructive industrial policies of governments like this one. The Liberal Party does not like it when workers and their unions have the capacity to act in preventing the exploitation of working Australians. The Liberal Party does not like it when legislation enables protections for vulnerable workers.

We are in the midst of a federal election campaign right now in which the contrast when it comes to who cares about working people in this nation could not be clearer. We have the federal Liberal government which in its broad disdain for working Australians has slashed penalty rates while corporate profits are growing at a rate five times faster than wages. Scott Morrison personally voted in support of cuts to penalty rates eight times. There can be no doubt that the Prime Minister thinks penalty rates are an undeserved luxury for some of our nation's lowest paid workers.

We have a federal Liberal government that is not interested in ensuring that Australia's minimum wage is a living wage. We have a federal Liberal government that is not interested in combating the casualisation of the workforce, with one in four Australian workers currently not enjoying the benefits that secure and permanent work provides. We have a federal Liberal government that is not interested in acting on insecure work, youth unemployment (which is now at 15 per cent in South Australia) and low wages growth. We have a federal Liberal government that appears to believe working Australians have had it too good for too long. They have been raking back workers' hard-won rights and they would love nothing more than to keep doing it.

We have a state Liberal government under Steven Marshall that now seems to be dancing to exactly the same tune. Well, it has to stop. I will never stop fighting against the destructive policies that hurt the working people of this state and this nation. None of us on this side will and I thank the crossbench sincerely for joining us in that effort today because, at the end of the day, the right to fair pay and conditions for a fair day's work is at the heart of the Labor Party and the heart of the union movement and it always will be. Happy May Day to you, Mr Acting President.