GOVERNMENT MUST EXPLAIN LABOUR HIRE REPORT

The Morrison-Joyce Government must explain why labour hire companies with a history of ripping off workers have been approved to bring migrant workers to Australia under the new Agriculture Visa.
 
If the reports in today’s Nine Newspapers are correct it provides yet more evidence that this Government simply doesn’t care if workers are exploited in insecure work.
 
One of the companies reportedly approved by the Government to participate in the visa scheme was suspended from another migrant worker scheme for paying people as little as $8 an hour. Another was fined for using illegal labour and another pressured workers to quit a union.
 
Why is the Government rewarding companies that have ripped off workers?
 
This is a Government that has admitted that keeping wages low is a ‘deliberate design feature’ of its policies and says insecure work is a ‘made up issue’.
 
This is a Government that has refused to take action against cowboy labour hire firms by backing Labor’s legislation for ‘same job, same pay’.
 
This is a Government that has refused to do anything about the exploitation of gig workers or to criminalise wage theft.

Far from criminalising it, today’s report shows they are happy to reward it.
 
Only an Albanese Labor Government will get wages moving again and improve access to secure work. And only an Albanese Labor Government will crack down on dodgy labour hire firms, protect gig workers and criminalise wage theft.
  
MONDAY, 21 MARCH 2022