Our private security guards are a cohort of workers here in Victoria and indeed Australia who provide an incredible service to our community, including as private security at some of the largest events here in Melbourne. Throughout the week we have heard the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events talk about, I think, the top 10 incredible events that Victoria holds. Those workers are there at those events while people like you and me, Acting Speaker Farnham, are having a great time with our families. They are there to keep us safe. This bill is all about protecting those workers and ensuring that they are paid what they are entitled to. From listening to stories about sham contracts and workers not being paid their entitlements, it is an absolutely abhorrent blight that happens all too often here in our community, and I am very proud to stand here with the government and with the Victorian Labor Party, which will hold those employers to account – and in part this bill is also about that.

The bill is looking to modernise the way that private security operates in modern Victoria and also tackle some of the key issues facing the industry today. We know that industries change over time, and legislation and legislative reform need to keep up with those changes. Indeed over the past five years I have seen many bills come before this house which do just that – they are trying to keep pace, whether it is with technology or with the expectations of the community, or indeed make sure that industries like the one that we are talking about today do afford and are afforded better protections.

I do want to acknowledge those in the private security industry – those incredible men and women, mums and dads, sometimes grandparents – who do the right thing. Indeed every single day when they go to work they perform their job to the highest standard. Thank you. The minister referred to several positive examples of private security guards who have done just that – gone to work and done an incredible job, including I think a pair of guards at a medical organisation who successfully de-escalated a situation with a person intoxicated with methamphetamines. The day-to-day job of a private security guard, depending on what they are doing, has many different facets to it. Sometimes they see the best of society, and sometimes they see the worst of it.

I think we have talked here about whether we say ‘security guards’ or ‘bouncers’– it probably depends on your age – but we have talked about the type of work and where they are placed, whether they are outside a nightclub doing their work or indeed whether they were the private security guards at the Taylor Swift concerts. I know that many people in the house are extroverted Taylor Swift fans or Swifties, or perhaps introverted, in-the-closet Swifties; we have found out about many of them here in this place as well over the past couple of weeks. I am sure those security guards could probably say which venue they would have preferred to be standing on guard at those nights as Taylor Swift indeed performed outstanding concerts here in Melbourne, in Victoria, and made us very proud. The private security industry plays such an important role in keeping all Victorians safe in very specific and diverse circumstances.

This legislation was introduced many moons ago to this Parliament – 20 years ago in fact – and at the time it was introduced there were major issues about how those working in the industry were being trained and really importantly being vetted by police so that they could do their job effectively in what would often be high-risk situations. This led to the death of the Australian cricketer David Hookes. The member for Melton talked really eloquently about David Hookes, what an incredible man he was and the deep and profound sadness the community felt when he was king hit by a bouncer outside a pub.

All the way back in 2018 our government made a really important commitment to review private security and overhaul it based on the recommendations of the review. In 2021 the review was released, and it was endorsed by cabinet. It included a number of recommendations that seek to address better conditions for those working in the industry along with better industry standards. Of the 21 ‍recommendations that came out of that review about half of them did not require legislative change, which is always a good thing because it has got to come through this place to do that, and they have been implemented. They are things like requiring Victoria Police to send out a fact sheet with each licence about workers rights and obligations – what a great thing to do, something that is now set in place.

The focus of this bill today that we are talking about is to act on the remaining recommendations, those that require legislative change, and to tackle some of the biggest issues facing the industry right now. It goes without saying that security workers, just like any other worker for that matter, deserve a safe industry where their pay and their conditions are protected and their rights, most importantly, are respected. Indeed the Victorian Labor government is committed to creating a better regulated and more professional and, importantly, well-regarded private security industry. To do this the bill makes a number of changes in three main areas. They are subcontracting, sham contracts and, really importantly, stronger enforcement mechanisms.

We know that in this industry it is sometimes necessary to subcontract and hire more security, and that is not always a bad thing. A good example of that could be in fact the Taylor Swift concerts I was just talking about. Major events like that one have a degree of surge demand for security services, purely because it turns out there are so many Swiftie fans here in Victoria and across the country, because remember many of them flew down to Melbourne to go to those concerts. The issue is that when you have this practice happen and it is unregulated it can always be easily exploited. We have unfortunately heard of instances where providers subcontract solely for maximising their profits and exploiting subcontracted workers with low pay and poor workplace standards. I know that there are many, many people in my community in Melbourne’s outer west that are private security guards, and I have no doubt that they have indeed been exploited through becoming subcontracted workers with low pay and poor workplace standards. The bill is going to address this by requiring that head contractors now need the written agreement of a client to hire subcontractors. In addition they will need to supply the names and licence numbers of each worker they have subcontracted. What this is going to do is provide greater oversight, and it lets the client know who exactly is performing the security service they have paid for and, most importantly, whether or not they are qualified. Because what we do know is when things go wrong with private security and there is a need to respond to something, if that private security guard is not properly trained or not aware of what is going on or does not know what to do, it can lead to tragic circumstances and outcomes.

There is a lot I could go on to say about this bill in the last 40 seconds before we go to lunch today. It is a really important bill. I think there have been some great contributions here in the house that go to the importance of protecting workers rights and ensuring that they have a safe industry to go ahead and work in, because what we know is that every worker deserves to go work and they deserve to go home to the family that loves them each and every single day. They also deserve to be paid the right wage and what they are entitled to. Time and time again we get so sick of hearing about the employers who are not quite sure – (Time expired)