Press Conference, Adelaide
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: I am so pleased to be here today joined by flight attendants that do the amazing job of supporting us all, us citizens, when we fly both domestically and internationally.
We're here today celebrating. It's been a year since many of these flight attendants got a pay increase as a result of our Same Job, Same Pay. Before our Same Job, Same Pay laws came into effect, we had people that were engaged with labour hire working alongside others doing exactly the same job but getting paid a whole lot less.
As a result of our law changes, it made it wrong to pay someone less for doing the same job just as it should be, because that is just not fair.
As a result, a year ago, a number of different occupations got a pay increase. For example, some of the flight attendants here were wearing the same uniform, doing exactly the same job, and getting paid $20,000 less.
Our laws have now restored that. And since our laws have come into effect, we have 7600 people now getting the same pay for doing the same job.
Another huge benefit as a result of us closing what was a really significant loophole was that many companies now don't see the benefit of employing labour hire.
Indeed, they're employing people directly, and that improves job security and of course the connection with employers. So, our efforts to make sure people are getting paid the same for the same work that they do is really, really important.
And now, I'm going to ask a few of these wonderful people to speak about the impact that this law has had on them. I'll start with Thomas. Off you go, Thomas.
THOMAS GARLAND, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Hi. My name's Thomas. I'm a Qantas flight attendant employed by Qantas Domestic, and I've been flying for 15 years.
These changes have been great. The past year, the pay increase has been huge for us. I can now afford to take a holiday. I can afford to be ill.
Suffering a chronic illness for the past 10 years, I can actually afford to take sick leave now and still eat at the end of the week.
These changes have meant so much to so many of my colleagues, those with young children, those with older parents. We can just afford to live. It's given us dignity and equality with our fellow workers.
We all have the same skill set, the same experience, but we were getting paid differently before and it wasn't fair.
ALANNA WATTS, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Hi. My name is Alanna. Like Thomas, I'm employed by Qantas Domestic.
And over the last 12 months with these Same Job, Same Pay changes, we have seen significant morale improvements amongst the crew working together in the same cabin. They are getting paid equally.
The equality of that is just significant for us after 10, 15 years-plus working under different pay scales.
It's just a phenomenal achievement to now be working alongside our colleagues for the same pay rate.
Also, like Tom said, it just extends that level of opportunity for us to spend quality time with our families on annual leave and actually be able to still afford our mortgages and things like that.
GREG WALL, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Thanks, Minister. My name's Greg. I currently work for Qantas International.
I was previously employed by Qantas for 27 years pre-COVID, and as we all know during the upheaval in aviation during the COVID pandemic, there were a lot of changes to aviation and most of it not great.
Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to come back and do the job that I love and the career, albeit on a different pay scale because I was- I went from being a legacy employed flight attendant to a labour hire company flight attendant.
Thankfully, through all the work that the Labor Government did to change these draconic laws in labour conditions and wages, I'm now earning the same as my peers, a fair wage for a fair day's work.
And that was all due part to the work and the collaboration between the FAAA sitting down around the table with Qantas who I have to say didn't fight us on this. They could see the fairness in it, of colleagues that were basically struggling to buy their groceries and pay for their fuel.
And all I can say, it's just been life-changing for myself and many other young crew coming through the industry who I work on the end of a cart with.
That's when you see it firsthand and the struggles they go through. Thank you.
TERI O'TOOLE, FEDERAL SECRETARY, FLIGHT ATTENDANTS' ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA: Hi. My name is Teri O'Toole. I'm the Federal Secretary of the Flight Attendants' Association of Australia.
This change, this law, has changed the lives of flight attendants. The stories that I've been sent are quite heartbreaking.
I have people saying, for the first time after these changes kicked in, they had money in their bank accounts at the end of the week. They could not believe that they're finally being able to see savings because they've lived pay check to pay check under the uh labour hire rules.
Qantas came to the party on this. They sat down, they negotiated, and we did not have to fight this in court. We did not have to have a long, protracted fight.
They also agreed to back pay, which was not part of the legislation, but they felt they were doing the right thing by doing that.
What we've seen is crew now being able to stay in this as a career. We have single mothers. We have people that can now go part-time and afford to live because the part-time wage is a living wage now.
So, we can't thank the Labor Government enough for these changes, and we look forward to working with them in the future.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I'll just sum it up. As you heard from those that spoke, this law change meant that so many people got a pay increase to help them make ends meet.
But it was more than just the pay increase. It was a question of fairness. To work alongside someone doing the same job in the same uniform and be paid more than $20,000 less is not fair.
It's not what our country has been built on. It is built on fairness, and it is about people getting a decent wage and making sure that they can make ends meet. So, I’ll go to questions.
JOURNALIST: So, what's next in this space in terms of- are there other areas that you're looking to target with similar legislation?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, look, in terms of the ability, and I wanted to give credit to the Flight Attendants Association.
What these laws have been put in place but it does require, in many cases, unions sitting down with employers to illustrate how labour hire is getting paid less than the direct employees.
So since this law has come into place and since the pay increases have been flowing, we've seen more and more cases where people across a range of different industries- it is in aviation, it is in mining, it is in a range of different areas.
So I certainly hope that employers now with this law in place will look carefully at the composition of their workforce and do everything they can to make sure anyone engaged in labour hire doing the same job is getting the same pay as those that are directly employed, often on an enterprise agreement.
JOURNALIST: I'll just move on to some other topics. On Medicare, the latest Medicare data shows bulk billing rates have flatlined. When do you expect them to start increasing?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well firstly, I would say that our government has made a record investment in Medicare.
This was after a decade of absolute neglect, worse than neglect, absolute destruction of Medicare where the Medicare rebates to GPs have been frozen for a very long time. So look, we of course have had the big job of investing in Medicare.
We’ve seen since our changes on 1 November, we've started to see more GP practices indicate they will switch from either not bulk billing at all or bulk billing certain groups of people to becoming fully bulk billing. These changes have been really important.
It has been the record amount invested in Medicare because it is our government that is committed to Medicare, while the Opposition and the Liberals have spent every opportunity they've been in office trying to destroy Medicare.
JOURNALIST: Can you guarantee that Medicare- sorry, that bulk billing rates will increase within the next six months?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, what I can say is our investment in Medicare is record. It is there by tripling the bulk billing incentive.
We know that many practices have looked at their financial incentives and are moving to fully bulk billing.
This is good news for Australians and good news for the many GP practices out there.
JOURNALIST: With all due respect, is it fair to say that you can't guarantee that?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, look, what I'm saying is I can clearly say that we have invested more in Medicare in the last few years, whether that's been for people on concession cards and now across the board.
Our investment in bulk billing is significant. We'll keep working to ensure our Medicare system is the best it can be. We've always done that as a Labor Government, and we always will.
JOURNALIST: How concerned are you about out-of-pocket costs ticking over $50 for the first time?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, look, of course we don't want to see a large out-of-pocket cost. That's why we have tripled the bulk billing incentive. That's why we've invested billions of dollars into our Medicare system.
We are cleaning up a big mess left to by the Liberal Party. But that won't deter us from the job of getting on and ensuring that Medicare is the best it can be.
JOURNALIST: Minister, moving on to COP, Anthony Albanese claims that sharing COP31 with Turkiye is an outstanding result. But Greens leader Larissa Waters told the ABC it's an embarrassment and pretty clear the PM wasn't fighting very hard to get the hosting rights. Do you think that's a fair assessment?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I don't accept that characterisation. Of course our country was putting forward a bid to host COP, so was Turkiye, and the process involved a consensus.
If consensus wasn't reached, then it would default to Germany and there would be no president of COP for a year.
Now that is not a good outcome for multilateralism and action across the globe on climate change.
So I'm not sure what Larissa Waters wanted, whether she wanted COP to not have a president, not to have multilateralism in place.
This is a compromise which ensures that Australia plays a very important role, that the Pacific Islands also get to be front and centre, and that we can ensure that there is continued progress when it comes to global action on climate change.
JOURNALIST: Senator Waters went on saying she thinks the government wanted to avoid scrutiny of its approval of coal and gas projects. Is the government relieved for that reason?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Look, I do not accept the premise of that question. Quite frankly, we put our best foot forward. We made sure that we were very clear about our desire to host COP.
The process involved consensus and we worked to compromise with Turkiye, the other place, to ensure that the multilateral process of COP can continue.
What I would say is we are very proud of the action we have taken when it comes to climate change. We are taking action.
If you look at our opponents, they are backing away, promoting, of course, walking away from net zero, which will have huge impacts, on our economy, pushing up power prices. We are taking action. We are investing in our energy grid because we know renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy.
ENDS