Copy of letter

Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash Attorney-General
Minister for Industrial Relations
By email only

8 February 2022

Dear Minister

Re: Qantas application to terminate enterprise bargaining agreement with long-haul cabin crew

Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, says workers deserve to be safe at work, backing ACTU calls to ensure worker safety.

Bandt, a former industrial relations lawyer, rejected the claim by some employers that the demands were a threat to business, saying that ensuring workers’ safety is the best way to keep businesses going as the virus continues to spread.

Quotes attributable to Greens leader, Adam Bandt MP:

“If a workplace is unsafe, workers have the right to stop work. 

Greens Leader Adam Bandt, Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi and Greens Health spokesperson Jordon Steele-John have joined teachers and parents calling for a national COVID Safe Schools action plan as students return to schools in NSW, Victoria and the ACT and public health restrictions are eased across the country.

In response to new research showing $4.6 billion in JobKeeper went to businesses that increased their turnover through the first wave of the Covid pandemic, the Greens have urged other parties to support Greens’ legislation to force JobKeeper profiteers to pay back public money they didn’t need.

The Greens’ Coronavirus Economic Response Package Amendment (Ending JobKeeper Profiteering) Bill 2021 is currently before the Senate.

Quotes attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt:

I rise on behalf of the Greens to speak to the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020. I can tell you that, unlike the title of it, there is absolutely nothing fair about this bill. This bill seeks to suppress wages and erode working conditions for all workers, especially those who are the lowest paid, through a suite of measures designed to further shift the balance of power from workers to business.

 I thank Senator Walsh for bringing this matter of public importance to the Senate. Over the last 40 years, Australia has gone from being one of the most egalitarian countries in the Western capitalist world to one of the most severely unequal—one dominated by business interests. Key to the growth of inequality and precariousness in Australia has been decades of neoliberal industrial relations policy designed to smash the power of organised labour and reorientate workplace organisations in favour of maximising gain for employers and giving them more flexibility to hire and fire workers.

This government is full of the ideological children of John Howard. A fundamental project of the Liberal and National parties is shifting the balance of power from workers to capital. At every turn they will privilege profits of corporations, of billionaires and of rent-seekers over the wellbeing of people and communities. Their policy agenda is the result of laziness, malice and an irrational obsession with free markets and competition. Decades of market-led policy, labour market deregulation and union busting have diminished the quality of work for so many people.

Australian Greens Leader and former industrial relations lawyer, Adam Bandt, has outlined how the radical overhaul at the heart of the IR omnibus bill will entrench insecure work. Bandt says the controversy over the terrible ‘Better Off Overall Test’ change has unfortunately distracted from the extreme nature of other reforms in the bill.
 
“This bill will redefine the Australian labour market,” said Dr Bandt.

The Greens’ moves to outlaw insecure work and protect gig economy workers have received a boost, with the Labor party backing those positions ahead of debate on the government’s anti-worker industrial laws.

The Greens support this motion. We have long called for federal laws on industrial manslaughter. Our workplace health and safety laws are broken. Employers who do not ensure their workplaces are safe must be held to account and there must be strong deterrents for cutting corners on safety. Action on the recommendations of the reports on industrial deaths should have already been implemented. The government has clearly deprioritised this. The families and loved ones of hundreds of people who have died at work since 2018 deserve to see justice.