“IT’S COMPLICATED”: PORTER ABANDONS GIG WORKERS

Christian Porter has confirmed he has no plans to help gig workers who are being exploited and ripped off because he thinks it’s all too hard to fix.

Mr Porter was repeatedly asked on Sky News today whether he believed gig workers should be paid the legal minimum and he refused to answer, saying only “it’s complicated”.

He also made the ridiculous claim that the safety of delivery drivers and riders is not linked to pay.

He has clearly never actually spoken to a gig worker or the unions that represent them.

Everyone knows that when delivery drivers and riders are forced to complete as many deliveries as possible just to make ends meet, they will cut corners and take more risks on our roads.

That is exactly what’s happening right now and people are dying.

Asked if the government had done any modelling or policy work around regulating gig work Mr Porter waffled and sought to change the subject.

So they clearly have not.

Gig work delivery services are valued by the community and will remain popular. But right now these people have third-world working conditions in a first-world country.

The deaths of five food delivery workers in Australia late last year exposed the dire impact on safety for workers due to lack of regulation in the gig economy and the denial of worker’s compensation for injury and death.

That is why Labor has committed to extending the powers of the Fair Work Commission to include "employee-like" forms of work, allowing it to better protect people in new forms of work from exploitation and dangerous working conditions.

This change will allow the Fair Work Commission to make orders for minimum standards for new forms of work, including the gig economy.

Christian Porter has no plan to stamp out these 19th century working conditions. Maybe he’s too busy trying to cut workers’ pay by tearing up the Better Off Overall Test safety net.

He should spend less time making up numbers about Labor’s job security plans and do something to stop the terrible exploitation of gig workers.

THURSDAY, 11 FEBRUARY, 2021