Address to the Australian Workers Union National Conference 2024

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I am really pleased to be here with you today. This is the fourth time I've been in WA this year, and the second since taking on this new role.

And I have made it a priority since taking on this new role as Employment and Workplace Relations Minister to get to as many union conferences as I possibly can so that I can be talking directly with union officials, workers and members about the issues that are confronting you in our workplaces right now.

Because of course, it's Australia's workers that were the people, and remain the people, that our Labor Party was created to represent. 

I am a Queenslander, a very proud Queenslander, and I'm very familiar with your union's long and proud history - one of Australia's oldest and largest blue collar unions, and the work of those early shearers and miners in places like rural Queensland and rural parts of the rest of our country has, of course, over the decades, broadened to cover workers in so many different industries that you are now all from.

And while I'm not going to claim that I've got AWU membership myself, I do have a family connection with your union, with my father having been an AWU member when he was a plant operator for the Brisbane City Council when I was growing up. And I dare say he was probably an AWU member when he was a young cane cutter in North Queensland, which would have been probably back in the 60s.

And as a young employment and industrial lawyer, I was very proud to represent your members when I lived in Melbourne, and that was in fact, where I met a young, up and coming bloke called Bill Shorten who, of course, is a real hero of your union and the union movement more generally.

And as Australia's Agriculture Minister, I was really pleased to build on that foundation and that relationship with your union by doing some really important and valuable things to protect the rights of agricultural workers and also workers in the fisheries sector in places like Tasmania.

I always found that we could have a very honest conversation about what was needed, what was going to work best, and get the best practical outcome for the workers that you represent and that people like me represent in Parliament.

So, as you can probably tell, I'm really thrilled to take on this new role, because I truly believe in the power of the union movement, and I believe in strengthening the rights of working people around our country. It's what my whole career has been about to date, whether as a lawyer, as a Senator, as a union member myself, and more recently, as a Minister.

And I also want to thank you as union members and officials and delegates for the really important work that you do to represent the members of your union and workers across Australia generally.

I recognise, as I think all of my colleagues do, that this is a genuine partnership, the labour movement, between our political wing and our trade union wing. And I think all of us would acknowledge that unless the two of us are working in harmony and working together on the same path, we only achieve half as much.

So, for all of the things that I'll take you through that we've done in government, I really recognise the role that you and every other trade union in Australia has played to put those issues on the agenda, and frankly, at times, to push us to do more and to do better. That's how we get the best results for workers, is by the union movement and our parliamentary wing working together to take these issues forward.

It is really good now to be able to come and talk to you about the work that our government is doing in Canberra for better pay, for more secure work, and to have safer workplaces.

Including on those construction workplaces where you've probably seen we've been doing a little bit of work recently to clean up another union, and make sure that union members and workers and officials are entitled to feel safe on those construction workplaces, just as they should be, and unfortunately, that we haven't been seeing enough of in recent years.

On wages and what we've been doing in Canberra, I think you'd all agree that it's hard to imagine a time where employment and wages policies have been more important to Australians, because, of course, they're central to the biggest challenge that Australians continue to face, which is dealing with cost of living pressures.

And we know that the people are still doing it really tough, and that's why, every day we're working hard and fighting hard to deliver for working Australians, wherever they might live.

We've driven down inflation. You might have seen we've now more than halved the inflation rate from where it was when we first came to office. And that's important, because, of course, the more prices are rising, the harder it is for people to stay afloat.

We've turned Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses, and that's not just done for the sake of it, or to get the wraps from the economic commentators. It's about putting that downward pressure on inflation, and we're now starting to see the results of that.

And I do pay tribute, of course, to one of your members, Jim Chalmers, who's really led the way in getting our Federal Budget back into shape.

At the same time, we've created more than a million new jobs in Australia. That is the most that any Australian Government has created in a single parliamentary term. Never been done before by any government, Labor or Coalition. But it's happened under the Albanese Labor Government.

And on the way here, I actually was told we just just had new jobs figures come out this morning, and despite all of the economic pressures that we continue to see in Australia and right around the world, the latest monthly figures show that we're still creating more jobs, at 16,000 more jobs on top of the 1.1 million that we have already created since we came to office.

In addition to that, you'd be familiar, I'm sure, with the range of cost of living support we've provided, whether it be changing the Liberals' tax cuts to make sure that they're fairer for working people, the energy bill relief, the rent assistance, the cheaper childcare, the cheaper medicines, the HECS relief, and many, many more.

Now, all of those things are about taking pressure off people's cost of living. You know, the approach we've taken is not just about trying to push prices down - as much as that has been a focus for our government.

But what we've also tried to do at the same time is ensure that people are earning more because, of course, if you've got rising costs, you want your government to try to push them down, and that's what we've been trying to do, and have had some success, but you also need to be earning more so that you can actually afford to meet some of those different costs that you're facing.

And helping working people in Australia to have a job and to earn more is absolutely my key focus, and our government's key focus for the remainder of this term and hopefully well into the future. Because continuing to deliver that better pay and also ensuring that Australians understand the connection between wages and cost of living is going to be a really big priority for me over the run up to the next federal election.

We promised at the last election to improve job security and to get wages moving again, and that is exactly what we've done with the support of Australia's trade union movement. You may have seen yesterday, we saw new wages data released, which showed that Australia has reported four consecutive quarters of real wage growth. That's wages rising above inflation for a full year in a row.

What that means, in dollar terms, is the average full time Australian worker is now earning about $160 more every week since we were elected, and they're keeping more of what they earn because of our cost of living tax cuts, which are delivering an average of $44 extra per week.

So, putting those two things together, the wages and the tax cuts, that's about $200 more every single week in the pockets of an Australian workers to help them deal with the cost of living pressures that they continue to face.

I absolutely recognise that life is still really hard for many Australians, it's not about giving ourselves a big pat on the back and saying "It's job done." There's a lot more to be done to help take that pressure off, and we'll continue to work with you and other unions in the months ahead to make sure that we can continue to do that.

But I do think we should reflect on how much harder it would have been for Australians, and how much harder it would be right now if they hadn't had those pay rises that have been delivered from our laws and your campaigns, and if they hadn't had all of that cost of living relief to go along with it.

All of that work has been the result of deliberate steps taken by the Albanese Labor Government. So, just as our Coalition predecessors used to boast about the fact that low wages were a deliberate design feature of their economic plan, for Labor, it's a deliberate design feature of our economic plan to get wages moving again, and that's exactly what we've done.

And again, I recognise the crucial role of your union and the whole trade union movement in campaigning for our government and for these changes. And I think we should take a moment to recognise that our shared struggle has resulted in some significant shared wins for Australia's workers.

If you look at what we've done, we got started early in delivering better rights for workers by delivering paid family and domestic violence leave, and we supported an increase to the minimum wage very, very early on in our term. And we've done it twice more since then.

We've delivered two big tranches of significant industrial relations reform, which were fought for by union members and delivered by our government, and they include everything from reinvigorating bargaining, bringing bosses back to the table, providing multi employer bargaining and intractable bargaining provisions.

Changing the objectives of the Fair Work Act, so that now the Fair Work Commission has got to think about things like job security and gender equality when they're making their decisions.

We're stopping companies from underpaying their workers through the use of labour hire by our Same Job, Same Pay laws. We've criminalised intentional wage theft. We've introduced a new criminal offence: industrial manslaughter, and new laws to protect workers from silica dust.

We've introduced new minimum standards for gig workers. We've provided a better deal for casual workers who want to become permanent, and provided them with a fair definition of what a casual worker is.

We've stopped unpaid overtime through our new Right to Disconnect, and what I imagine is quite important to you, we've introduced really important new delegates rights at the workplace, as well.

Now, that's probably about a third of what I can take you through that we've done, but I haven't got all day, and you haven't got all day to listen to me, but that's just a snapshot of some of the big changes we've made that unions are now able to exercise in the workplace, and that are resulting in some of those improvements for Australia's workers.

So, what has that delivered for the people that you represent and that we represent in Parliament? I've mentioned we've now got a consecutive year of real wages growth, and that compares to what it was like when we came to office, where we had five consecutive quarters of real wages going backwards under the Coalition. Australians' wages weren't even keeping up with inflation for five consecutive quarters before we came to office.

We've got the highest number of workers now covered by enterprise agreements since 2020. We've got the highest average private sector pay rises for 12 years. The gender pay gap is at its lowest rate in history. We backed in increases to those minimum and award wage earners, meaning the 2.6 million of our lowest paid workers are better off. We backed and funded pay rises for aged care workers and early childhood workers, and every single one of those, as I've said, is a joint project with the union movement.

Life isn't perfect out there, it's not as if everything's been done, there's more to be done, but I do think we should recognise the work that we've all done together that has made significant changes and is now bearing fruit for Australian workers.

Now, I did want to say something about the mining industry, given we are here in Perth and given that is a very topical issue, particularly here, including with your union, because I didn't think there was any way I could come to Perth and not talk about the mining industry.

I want to make clear the Albanese Government understands how important mining is, both here in Western Australia and for our country as a whole. And as I say, as a Queenslander, I very much understand how important the mining industry is for my home state, as well as for here on the West Coast.

This is an industry, as you all know, that creates wealth for our country, the raw materials needed for countless products and well paid jobs for its workers. But more than understanding mining is important, we're backing our mining industry to grow so it can do even more.

Our government is backing the resources sector with more than $17 billion in production tax incentives, and these incentives will grow our resources sector and create good, well paid and highly skilled jobs for another generation of Australians.

We're backing large numbers of individual projects across Australia with low interest loans.

We're opening up trade and drawing in foreign investment to create jobs right here.

We're backing our mining industry because we value it. We want it to do well.

We want mining companies to do well. They invest large amounts, and they deserve a return on that investment.

We also want Australians to do well from our mining industry. That's why we have royalties and collect taxes from mining, because the resources being mined belong to all Australians - and we all deserve a return on that.

Being a Labor Government, we want mining workers to do well, as well.

I've met these workers, and some of them are your members, everywhere from Mount Isa to the Pilbara and the coal fields of Central Queensland and the Hunter Valley. And it's these mining workers do the hot, tough, dangerous work to create this wealth, often far from home and removed from their families.

That's why mining workers deserve to be paid well. Have secure jobs and safe workplaces. They deserve a fair return on their effort.

Besides, here in Western Australia, it's a simple fact that when mining workers do well, the Western Australian economy does well, and when the Western Australian economy does well, our whole nations economy does well.

It's also a fact that the mining industry does best when mining companies, unions and governments work together.

Now, probably like you, I've seen the debate that's been going on, particularly here in WA about the changes that we've made and what they mean the mining industry.

And not surprisingly, we've seen some pretty overblown claims made by Coalition figures like Western Australia's own Michaelia Cash.

It's not surprising that she's making these claims because she opposed our laws from the get go, claiming they would close down Australia.

Now, I don't know about you, but walking around out there in Perth today, it looks pretty open to me.

The problem for people like Senator Cash is that the facts don't back her up.

Since the Albanese Government changed our workplace laws, we've seen more agreements between employers unions and workers, not less.

And for all the claims about conflict in the workplace, the latest figures show there is less industrial action happening in Australia right now under a Labor Government than there was under a Coalition Government.

And for those opposing collective bargaining in the mining industry, consider this the Business Council of Australia, which includes some of Australia's biggest mining and resources companies, has said that, and I quote, "Enterprise agreements enable business and workers to share success. They remain the best way to keep people in work and enable businesses to grow and succeed so they can pay higher wages and employ additional workers."

So, collective bargaining can be good for workers and good for businesses. Workers get better pay and conditions, and businesses get more flexibility and productivity.

And for all the scaremongering from some about the changes we've made to workplace laws, the sky is simply not falling in. Let's put all of this in perspective.

You've probably heard a bit of the angst about our changes that we have made allowing collective bargaining in the Pilbara, where an existing agreement has expired less than five years ago, there's a lot of angst out there about it.

And this does open the door to a collective agreement, particularly at BHP. But any agreement reached because of our changes would actually only cover 1,800 of BHP's 14,000 strong Pilbara workforce. I don't think that's going to kill off the mining industry.

And as for multi-employer bargaining, which has also attracted the scare campaigns, of the 13 single interest, multi employer bargaining authorisations granted by the Fair Work Commission, so far, only one is in the mining industry.

It's in the Hunter Valley and involves deputies, under managers, shift engineers and control room control room operators who are not covered by an enterprise agreement and are excluded from a range of important award conditions.

Besides, there are several strict criteria that need to be met to obtain an authorisation for single interest, multi employer bargaining from the Fair Work Commission. 

The other area we're seeing a scare campaign is over our Same Job, Same Pay laws. They're designed to prevent big companies from exploiting the loophole that allowed them to bring in long term labour hire workers on pay and conditions that were far below those they agreed with their own workforces.

We recognise there is a role for labour hire and other short term forms of employment to deal with surges in work and other circumstances. But an employer should not be able to bring a labour hire on a long term basis just to cut their wages bill, and now, because of the changes we've made in the law, they can't do that any longer.

It's really pleasing to see workers now getting pay rises of up to 30 or $40,000 a year to bring them in line with direct employees that they work alongside in mining, in aviation, meat processing, warehousing and other industries. 

So far, all the employers involved have reached agreements to respect these new laws, except the one case in the mining industry. Maybe that employer could do what other big Australian companies have done, and respect the fact that the law has now changed.

Again, all of these changes are hardly causing an economic meltdown. Don't get me wrong, all of those changes we made to collective bargaining, multi employer bargaining and Same Job, Same Pay, are really important changes that allow workers to bargain collectively to seek the wages and conditions they deserve.

It's hardly open slather as some people are portraying it.

These are measured changes by a Labor Government to ensure that workers have the opportunity to bargain together, to be properly paid, to have secure jobs and have safe workplaces.

I've said a few times in this speech that we understand that the situation out there for workers is still not perfect, and there's more to be done.

We're in discussions with the ACTU right now about what policies we could take to the next election, because we recognise that more needs to be done, and I'd encourage you to have those discussions, as you probably are, with the ACTU on behalf of your union.

But we do need to recognise that heading into the next election, it is the time for all of us to come together again and make best use of the hard fought reforms that we've made over the past two years and ensure they're not taken away.

I don't think I probably need to convince this crowd, but make no mistake, Peter Dutton and the Coalition represent the greatest threat to workers' pay and conditions since WorkChoices back under John Howard.

Now, that is not a scare campaign, unlike what's being said about mining. We know that is true because when they were last in office, low wages were a deliberate design feature of their economy, and they spent their 10 years going after millions of workers.

We know that because that's what they've continued to do in Opposition, where they voted against every single one of our cost of living measures and every single one of our workplace reforms.

So, when they were in government, they cut pay and conditions. And while they've been in Opposition, they try to do exactly the same every time. And we also know that they want to cut pay and conditions because of what they've already promised they'll do if they win the next election.

They are already on the record, before the campaign has even started, saying that if they win the next election, they will come after the rights of casuals, Same Job, Same Pay, multi employer bargaining, and the Right to Disconnect.

And you might have seen a couple of weeks ago, they also opened the door to watering down unfair dismissal protections for workers in medium-sized businesses. Their Shadow Finance Minister has said that "Adding more rights for working people is unreasonable."

Unreasonable - that's how they think about workers rights. And they've said that they're going to take more repeals to the next election.

Now, we know what they mean when they say they will review things, or they'll consider things, it means they will cut workers pay and cut unions rights to represent workers in the workplaces.

When you think about it, when Australians are feeling real cost of living pressures right now, Peter Dutton and the Coalition want to cut your pay.

At a time when so many Australians are doing it really tough out there, Peter Dutton and the Coalition are promising to make things worse.

That's not normally what people do when they go to an election, but that's exactly what Peter Dutton and the Coalition are promising.

I look forward to getting out there on the campaign trail with all of you in the months ahead to promote what we've done together. The better pay, the more secure jobs, the safer workplaces that are happening because of our collective effort in the union movement and in the Parliamentary wing.

And I also look forward to pointing out with you that if Peter Dutton and the Coalition are elected, we will go backwards, and people who are having a really tough time out there will be worse off even still.