Address to the National Press Club
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"Don't look back in anger"
I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today – the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples - and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
I acknowledge my parliamentary colleagues in the room, particularly the Minister for Skills and Training Andrew Giles, along with my departmental Secretary Natalie James.
I also acknowledge the many union and business leaders in the room today.
It is an honour to be back at the National Press Club for what is my second address, but my first as the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.
The audience is a little different to the one I spoke to as Agriculture and Emergency Management Minister, but the content is just as rich and thorny!
INTRODUCTION
A couple of weeks ago, the legendary English rock band Oasis announced they were getting back together, after fifteen years. An event as unlikely as Peter Dutton and the Greens Party getting together to block housing investment!
As someone who was 21 when the band first shot to stardom, the Oasis reunion certainly brought back plenty of great memories… and a few not so great, involving late night renditions of “Wonderwall”.
It’s been 30 years since the Gallagher brothers’ debut album and while the nature of work has changed a lot since then, the dignity of work has not.
Ensuring Australians get a fair go, through good, well-paid, secure and safe jobs are core Labor values.
And I’m delighted to have the opportunity, in this new role, to help our government deliver on those values.
For me, it’s a return to work I’ve done throughout my career. As a union member, an employment and industrial lawyer, in Senate committees – including grilling Michaelia Cash about the leaked police raid on union offices - and most recently representing my predecessor Tony Burke in the Senate. All helpful training for the role I now hold.
I pay tribute to the work Tony did in this portfolio. Groundbreaking reforms, to give more Australians secure jobs, better pay and safer workplaces.
And today, as we near the end of this term, I’ll talk to you about the reforms we’ve delivered, how those reforms are helping Australians right now, and the choice we face at the coming election.
Because we know there are different views on our workplace reforms, with the strongest criticism coming from Peter Dutton and the Coalition. Always looking backwards, always angry.
But, to borrow a line from the Gallagher brothers, I encourage Australians - “don’t look back in anger”.
Don’t accept Peter Dutton’s angry worldview and let him turn back the clock, to the days of Work Choices, or of governments deliberately keeping wages low.
WORKPLACE RELATIONS AND COST OF LIVING
For it’s hard to imagine another time when our country’s employment and wages policies are more important.
Because those policies are central to the issue that everyone knows is top of mind right now – the cost of living.
We all know that many Australians are doing it tough, with higher interest rates resulting in really soft growth, and persistent but moderating inflation.
That’s why every day since we came to government, the Prime Minister, Treasurer, Finance Minister and our entire government have been focused on reducing cost of living pressures.
It’s why we’ve delivered fairer tax cuts, energy bill relief, more bulk billing, cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines, rent assistance and HECS relief for students and graduates.
But as well as reducing people’s living costs, the other thing governments can do to help Australians right now is to help them earn higher wages.
Put simply, the approach governments take, to wages and employment, is central to relieving cost of living pressures.
Right now, Labor’s workplace reforms are helping Australians to stay afloat.
And we’ve done it by encouraging more cooperation and less conflict.
Because unlike our political opponents on the left and right, Labor has shown a willingness to work with both business and unions, for mutual gain.
Let’s look at what our reforms have delivered.
MORE SECURE JOBS
Tomorrow, the August ABS labour force figures will be released and we are hopeful we will again see more jobs created across our economy.
Last month’s figures showed that a total of 989,200 jobs have been created since the Albanese Labor Government came to office.
That’s more jobs created in a single parliamentary term than any government in Australia’s history.
We’re seeing more Australians working than ever before, with the participation rate reaching a record high of 67.1 per cent last month.
That’s partly because under the Albanese Labor Government, more Australian women are getting into work than ever before.
Women have led the jobs boom – 52 per cent of all jobs created have been jobs for women.
All up, an extra 510,000 women are in jobs since we were elected.
Now we’ve been upfront that we expect the labour market to soften.
We see that in the modest rise in the unemployment rate, falling jobs ads and lower average hours worked in recent months.
This is one reason we are investing so much in fee-free TAFE and other training measures, so we can ensure Australians gain the skills needed for the jobs that remain unfilled.
And it’s why we’re reforming our employment services system, to assist those who face barriers to entering the labour market.
But despite challenging economic conditions, unemployment still remains historically low and the labour market remains steady.
And our workplace reforms are also working to ensure that Australians’ jobs are more secure, just like we said they would.
Of the nearly one million jobs we’ve created to date, more than 63 percent were full-time.
And the level of casualisation in the workforce is falling, down from 23.2 per cent in May 2022 to 22.5 per cent in May 2024.
This is not an accident – we intended to deliver more secure jobs.
It’s why, for the first time, our government made job security an objective of the Fair Work Act.
It’s why we:
- Legislated a fair, objective definition of casual work, to get rid of the “permanent casual” rort;
- Streamlined the process for casuals to convert to permanent work;
- Limited the use of unending fixed-term contracts;
- Closed the labour hire loophole, which has led major employers like Qantas to directly employ workers previously engaged as labour hire; and
- Protected workers from disciplinary action if they exercise their right to disconnect.
All these measures are delivering more secure jobs, just like we intended.
Making a real difference to Australian workers, like Danielle – who has worked at a Hunter Valley coal mine for two-and-a-half years and will now move from being labour hire to permanent employment with Thiess.
Danielle said…
“When we got the win that we would be made permanent and get a pay rise, that was a great moment.
We all do the same work, there’s really no difference between someone who is wearing a Thiess label or a Programmed label in terms of what we do day to day.”
BETTER PAY
Similarly, our workplace reforms are getting wages moving again, just like we said they would.
The Wage Price Index rose 0.8 per cent in the June quarter, to be 4.1 per cent higher through the year.
Annual real wages grew 0.3 per cent through the year to the June quarter of 2024.
Under Labor, annual real wages have been growing for three consecutive quarters.
A massive turnaround from the situation we inherited, when annual real wages were falling by 3.4 per cent.
Again, I acknowledge that things are still tough for many Australians. But lifting wages is a key part of taking off some of that pressure.
And it’s making a big difference for Deb, an aged care worker from the Gold Coast.
She said her recent wage increase was an ‘absolute game changer’.
It helps with school expenses and being able to call a plumber and not stress.
Deb said that at her workplace “a lot of the girls are single parents running a household on their own. They can afford to pay their rent and mortgage now.”
And Labor’s wage rises for people like Deb are not an accident.
The Coalition infamously said that low wages were a “deliberate design feature” of their economic policy.
Under Labor, things have changed. For Labor, lifting wages is a deliberate design feature of our economic policy.
We’ve achieved this in a number of ways.
Firstly, by dramatically increasing the minimum wage.
In July, 2.6 million low paid workers saw their pay packets increase because – for the third year running - the Albanese Government went into bat for them at the Fair Work Commission.
In contrast, the previous government never once advocated for a wage rise for our lowest paid workers, in nearly a decade in office.
Across the three consecutive Annual Wage Review decisions we’ve supported, minimum wage earners’ pay has increased by $143 per week.
Giving cleaners, kitchen hands, retail assistants and other low paid workers real help to deal with rising costs.
The other factor leading to wages rising is a big increase in bargaining at the workplace level.
Under the Coalition, enterprise bargaining collapsed to the point that only 14 per cent of the Australian workforce were covered by an agreement that was in date.
We took steps to reinvigorate bargaining, by:
- Simplifying agreement approvals,
- restarting bargaining for expired agreements,
- making the Better Off Overall Test simpler and fairer, and
- giving the Fair Work Commission more power to arbitrate and to resolve intractable bargaining.
These changes have got more employers, unions and workers sitting round the table, cooperating, to reach agreements that work for them.
In fact, in March 2024, there were 472,600 more workers covered by current enterprise agreements, receiving higher pay, than two years earlier.
The fact is that collective agreements are good for workers and good for businesses - workers get better pay and conditions and businesses get more flexibility and productivity. OECD research proves that.
Now, we hear a lot of noise about our decision to revive multi-employer bargaining, something that had previously been in the Act.
You’d be forgiven for thinking it was taking over the world.
In fact, only one single-interest multi-employer agreement has been finalised since we changed the law, in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning industry, between the AMWU and eight employers.
Not exactly destroying business.
But while Coalition figures are lining up to fear monger about our changes to bargaining, it seems they can have a change of heart, when they leave Parliament.
Back in 2019, it was former Coalition Finance Minister Matthias Cormann who said that low wages were a deliberate design feature of their economic policy.
Of course, now that he heads up the OECD, outside the party-political world, he isn’t constrained by this false façade.
In its 2023 Employment Outlook the OECD says…
The most direct way to help workers is via an increase in their wages.
Wage setting institutions – including minimum wages and collective bargaining – can help ensure a fair distribution of the cost of inflation between firms and workers, while avoiding a price-wage spiral.
Maybe Matthias needs to have a chat to his former colleagues.
Beyond bargaining, we’ve closed loopholes, ensuring that labour hire can’t be used as a wage-cutting exercise and that gig workers and truckies can seek minimum standards of pay.
We've also delivered significant pay rises to specific occupations that have been shamefully undervalued for far too long.
Like aged care workers, for whom we're helping to fund pay rises of up to 28.5 per cent.
And early childhood education and care workers, for whom we will fund a 15 per cent increase, starting from December this year.
Making a real difference for early educators like Courtney from Tasmania who will be earning an extra $192 every week.
When she heard the news, Courtney said…
“It would help me to afford my bills more comfortably, have a social life, help my mindset when dealing with the challenges that we deal with everyday at work.”
These pay rises are just a couple of ways that our government has deliberately prioritised economic equality for women, in addition to reviving multi-employer bargaining and lifting the minimum wage.
We also did it by making gender equality an objective of the Fair Work Act.
We banned pay secrecy clauses and introduced paid family and domestic violence leave – so no one has to choose between their safety and their pay.
And the result? The gender pay gap in Australia is now at its lowest level on record at 11.5 per cent. Down from 14.1 per cent when the Coalition left office.
That is making a material difference in the lives of women across the country.
If the gender pay gap stayed at the Coalition’s average of 15.4 per cent, the average full-time working woman would overall be $78.70 per week worse off than she is now.
Over the course of a year, that’s an extra $4,092 in the pockets of average working women under this government.
Again, we acknowledge people are under pressure – and delivering better pay is a tangible way our government is helping.
Just imagine how much worse things would be for families, if Peter Dutton had had his way and these pay rises had never happened.
Now, there are some who continue to run scare campaigns about the impact of our changes on employers or the Australian economy.
These are the same people – hello Michaelia Cash – who claimed our changes would “close down Australia” or take us back to “the Dark Ages”.
Well, Australia looks pretty open to me. And I haven’t seen anyone dressed in chain mail, wheeling catapults down Canberra Avenue anytime lately.
I hate to disappoint the fearmongers, but there is no evidence the economy has collapsed due to our workplace reforms. To the contrary, the facts show that many employers are benefiting from our emphasis on cooperation and rewarding employees.
Again, employment is up, not down. More businesses are reaching agreements with their workers and unions.
Further, under the Albanese Government, more businesses are being created.
Since our government was elected, 9,000 new firms employing between 5-200 workers have been created, while another 500 new firms employing more than 200 workers have opened their doors.
New business investment rose by 2.2 per cent through the year to June. It’s been growing strongly since we came to office and hit its highest level in over a decade last financial year.
We do have more work to do on productivity, but it is up half a percent in the year to June, after we saw productivity tank under the Coalition - the worst decade in productivity growth in over 60 years.
When you put it all together, it’s not exactly “closing down Australia”.
And most surprising to some, industrial action has actually fallen under Labor.
On average, from 2.4 working days per 1,000 workers over the Coalition’s decade in office to around 1.8 working days per 1,000 employees under Labor. So much for the warnings of nationwide strikes.
Could it be that Labor’s approach, encouraging cooperation, is delivering more industrial peace, rather than the conflict some say is coming to “every workplace in Australia”?
I’m not pretending that economic conditions aren’t difficult right now. But the facts don’t support the predictions of doom that accompanied our reforms, nor the inflammatory descriptions of what’s happening right now.
SAFER WORKPLACES
Just as Labor wants to see more secure jobs and better pay, we also want Australians to enjoy safer and more respectful workplaces.
I pay tribute to my colleagues Katy Gallagher and Mark Dreyfus, who’ve done an outstanding job delivering on the recommendations of Kate Jenkins’ groundbreaking Respect@Work inquiry.
Our historic Respect@Work legislation significantly progresses gender equality by ensuring women are able to earn a living in safe, respectful, sexual harassment-free workplaces.
In the past decade we have seen a new version of the scourge of asbestosis, with silicosis rising among those who work with engineered stone, especially in construction.
Men and women as young as 30 years of age, tragically dying from cancers caused by the cutting of stone that contained silica.
But despite report after report on engineered stone being given to the Coalition, they failed to act.
I pay tribute to the unions and workers who campaigned for change and the Federal, State and Territory Ministers who introduced a world-leading domestic ban on engineered stone, which came into effect on July 1 of this year.
Today I can announce that we will go one step further.
From the first of January next year the importation of engineered stone benchtops, slabs and panels will be banned from 1 January 2025.
The importation ban will provide an extra layer of deterrence at the border, as most engineered stone products are imported into Australia.
Our action on silicosis comes on top of other steps we’ve taken to protect the safety of workers.
Like introducing industrial manslaughter laws, after the Coalition refused to act on workplace deaths.
And introducing world-leading minimum standards for gig workers and truckies.
While these standards will deliver better pay and conditions, they will also improve the safety of gig workers, such as those in rideshare, food delivery and care work.
Too often, the pressure to deliver items fast, in order to shorten delivery times and make a bit more money, leads to unsafe work practices.
Rideshare and food delivery workers shouldn’t have to choose between getting paid and getting home alive. And as a result of our workplace reforms, they won’t have to.
CFMEU
Of course a safe workplace is one that is also free of corruption, criminality, bullying and violence.
And sadly, recent allegations strongly suggest that kind of culture had seriously infiltrated the Construction Division of the CFMEU and the wider construction industry.
Our government has taken swift action, appointing an external administrator to clean up the union, so it returns to its core function - representing its members.
I am a proud unionist, as were my parents and their parents before them.
I deeply respect the work that thousands of decent union officials, delegates and members do to protect and advance workers’ interests.
The actions of some individuals and apparent infiltration by organised crime, is in no way a reflection of union values.
Nor is it a reflection of good, honest construction workers, who pay the salaries of those so-called leaders.
I’m proud of the fact the broader union movement has stood up against bullying, misogyny and violence.
Sally McManus, Michele O’Neil and other union leaders have bravely stood up to the abuse, threats and intimidation they have been subjected to, for the good of the wider union movement and the workers it represents.
Our government is proud to stand with these union leaders to tackle this huge task.
Let me be very clear. Our action, the strongest open to us, is not about punishing workers or members of the CFMEU. Quite the opposite.
Both the administrator, Mark Irving KC, and I have repeatedly said that we will not tolerate employers seeking to use the administration period to deunionise, to walk away from deals, to cut wages and conditions, or to reduce safety standards.
Construction work is hard, dangerous work and we will back construction workers to have fair conditions and a strong and effective union.
But we will not back corruption, criminality, intimidation and violence, and we will take action when allegations of this conduct arise.
We will also call out those who support it.
Like Max Chandler-Mather and the Greens Party, who in their desperate grandstanding have endorsed the very thuggery and violence they claim to oppose.
We must also remember the startling allegations we’ve seen lately are not confined to the Construction Division of the CFMEU. It is equally galling that some employers appear to have been complicit in the disgraceful behaviour we have seen.
One of the most disturbing things to come out of this week’s report from eminent corruption fighter Geoffrey Watson SC was that bikies who had been sacked by the CFMEU as on-site union delegates were still working on those sites, but for employers.
Little wonder that Mr Watson found that union officials had “been subjected to threats, violence or abuse in connection with their work for the union.”
This is not on. Bikies and organised crime have no place in Australian unions and they have no place working for employers either.
The truth is that we need a major reset in Australia's construction industry, and we have a once in a generation opportunity to do it.
We need to fundamentally change the culture of this industry. We need to build cooperation, not conflict and an industry that works for everyone.
To do that, we will be reinvigorating the National Construction Industry Forum, a tripartite body created through the Government’s Jobs and Skills Summit.
I will be bringing the forum together in the next month and we will broaden its membership, to include the Master Builders Association and the Civil Contractors Federation, who will join existing employer representatives including the Australian Constructors Association, the Housing Industry Association, the National Electrical and Communications Association, the Property Council and Australian Owned Contractors, along with relevant union representatives, who have all participated constructively since the forum commenced.
We will discuss a range of difficult issues and it will require each side to give and take, including by addressing misconduct and lawlessness on both the worker and employer sides.
This is something I am personally committed to because I have seen the positive impacts that tri-partism can have on an industry.
It is something we achieved through the Agricultural Workforce Working Group in my previous portfolio area.
Workplace cooperation is delivering for workers and business in other sectors. There is no reason it can’t happen in the construction sector too.
RISK OF DUTTON
As we approach the next election, the choice – between workplace cooperation or conflict – will become much starker.
Because it underpins the choice Australians will have, about the wages and employment conditions they receive.
It’s why workplace relations will be a key battleground at the next election and the choice for Australians will be clear.
As I’ve said, Labor’s workplace reforms, which are delivering secure jobs and better pay, are a crucial protection from the very real cost of living pressures that Australians face.
And that protection is seriously at risk, at the next election.
Because we know that, if he’s elected, Peter Dutton will use conflict and fear to divide Australians and turn back the clock on workplace rights.
We know this because of Peter Dutton’s track record - the most angry, divisive and negative leader Australia has had since Tony Abbott.
A man who would say no to free ice cream, if you offered it to him.
We also know this because of the Coalition’s record, every time they come to office.
Declaring war on unions and workers, driving wages and productivity down.
And we know it because of what Peter Dutton has already promised to do, if he is elected next year.
Already, Peter Dutton has promised to strip rights from casual workers to become permanent.
He’s said he’ll tear up the right to disconnect, chaining Australians to their phones and emails when they go home, working hours of unpaid overtime.
His Shadow Treasurer has said there will be more repeals announced before the election.
And last weekend, his Shadow Finance Minister, Jane Hume, promised to “review” workplace laws, and telling workers they’d have to wait till after the election to find out if they’ll get a pay cut.
Make no mistake - Peter Dutton and the Coalition are the biggest threat to Australians’ wages and workplace conditions since Work Choices.
With cost-of-living pressures biting and our economy under strain, it’s hard to think of a worse time to cut Australians’ pay.
But that’s exactly what Peter Dutton has in store.
At a time when Australians are doing it tough, Peter Dutton wants to make things worse.
So, what would that mean for Australian workers, like Courtney, Deb and Danielle?
It means that if Peter Dutton wins, they’ll lose.
It means that Peter Dutton would have his hand in millions of workers pockets’ the moment he got to the Lodge.
New analysis of ABS data has found that based just off the things Peter Dutton has already said no to – Labor’s wage rises, our tax cuts and our energy bill relief - the average Australian would be thousands of dollars worse off.
If Peter Dutton had his way on wages, the average Australian worker would be $3,576 worse off this year.
And if Peter Dutton had his way and we didn’t change the stage 3 tax cuts, the average Australian worker would be $894 worse off by the end of the financial year.
If Peter Dutton had his way and energy bill relief wasn’t provided, every Australian household would be $300 worse off by mid next year.
That is more than $65 every week ripped out of the average Australian’s wallet by Peter Dutton and the Coalition.
How will that help Australians battling cost of living pressures?
And that doesn’t even include the extra repeals he says are coming.
It’s bad for workers and bad for the Australian economy.
And that’s before we get to the $315 billion in spending cuts he’s promised, which would send our economy into reverse.
CONCLUSION
So as we approach the next election, the choice is pretty clear.
Under Anthony Albanese and Labor, you’ll earn more and keep more of what you earn.
Under Peter Dutton and the Coalition, you’ll work longer for less.
Labor’s workplace reforms are delivering secure jobs, better pay and safer workplaces, while also building more cooperative and productive workplaces that benefit employers.
The Coalition are addicted to workplace conflict and have already committed to scrap workplace rights, with more to come.
On workplace reform, the Coalition always look backwards.
To a time when the gender pay gap was 30% higher than it is under Labor.
A time when unemployment was far higher, when workers were paid less and worked more, with more industrial conflict thrown in.
For whatever reason, they always look back, with anger.
I don’t think Australians want that. I think that right now, as they deal with cost-of-living pressures, Australians want secure jobs, better pay and safer, cooperative workplaces.
And I look forward to campaigning for that, in the months ahead.