I rise to speak on the Wage Theft Bill 2020 with a great sense of pride in our government and our commitment to protecting workers rights. A bill like this is the Andrews Labor government at their absolute best, and causes like this are perfect illustrations of who we are and what we stand for. We know that wage theft is running rampant through so many key industries, not just in Victoria but nationwide. What is worse is knowing that even though many of these employers have now been exposed their employees were being ripped off for years. I would like to thank all those people in the trade union movement who have been at the forefront of exposing these stolen wages. It is their workers and their representatives who have led the fight against dodgy employers and made sure that everyone gets their fair share.

As our economy emerges from the shocks of the coronavirus pandemic, it is more important than ever that we protect workplace rights, and that includes fair pay and fair conditions. Now, we have a federal coalition government that spent decades hell-bent on declaring war against the union movement, and let us remember that if it was not for the coronavirus, they would now be proceeding with the ensuring integrity bill. The difference between us could not be any clearer, because make no mistake, they could have criminalised wage theft nationwide and taken leadership on this issue. Instead they are giving those same bosses amnesty for superannuation payments. We want to make it a crime. They want to give them a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Now, I am certainly someone that has spent many, many years working very long hours on my feet in the hospitality industry, working as a waitress to pay my way through university. I was young, and I was pretty vulnerable. I had no idea what the minimum wage was. I never actually thought to ask, and that is because I trusted my boss to do the right thing. With the ripping off of hospitality workers being so rampant, I would probably be quite right in saying that somewhere during those years of serving coffee and food I would have been underpaid. In fact if I worked in that industry today it is still highly likely that at some stage there would be issues with my wage. I say that because the Fair Work ombudsman’s surveys continue to show around half of all hospitality businesses are largely non-compliant with labour laws. That is hardly a fringe activity. It is a business model designed to rort employees’ wages. What we are saying is enough is enough. It is a crime, and we are going to enforce it.

So I have got to say: I have got very little sympathy for celebrity chefs like George Calombaris, who has complained about paying penalty rates to hospitality workers whilst owning two mansions, I think in Toorak and Mornington, worth—what was it?—$7 million together. That is almost as much as the amount he did not pay his workers: $7.8 million. I know I would be livid if my boss stole my wages just so he could buy a beachfront property in some exclusive part of the Victorian coastline.

When I have to sit in this place and listen to the Shadow Treasurer’s comments that ‘now is not the time’, it shows just how out of touch the member for Ripon and her colleagues really are. What really gets me about those sitting opposite is that if they bothered to go and speak with workers they would have a better idea of what is happening inside the workplaces across this state and across this country. As someone who actually aspires to be the Treasurer of this state, I am sure the member for Ripon would be well aware that wage theft has wider implications, serious economic implications, because if we have got some businesses paying their employees less than the award, then it makes it difficult for their competitors to compete and even harder for them to give their staff a pay rise. If now is not the time to come in and clean this activity up, then I have to ask: when is? Because this type of behaviour does in fact make our economy weaker through its wider economic implications.

I may not be an economist, but I can certainly see common sense when it is right in front of me. It is clear that the current system is not working. The federal civil penalty regime does not go far enough to deter employers from engaging in this disgusting practice. They know exactly what they can and cannot scrape off the edges when it comes to payroll. They seem to think that as long as they say sorry and pay the money back, then, well, all is really forgiven, isn’t it?

But I have probably said too much about employers for the moment, because the far more important people in this story are the employees who have had their wages stolen. This is not just celebrity restaurants. It is Coles, it is Woolies, it is banks, it is Target, it is Qantas. The people working in hospitality or in retail are people scraping by to pay the bills and make ends meet. These are the real victims who face real challenges because of wage theft. At a time when wages growth is at an all-time low, their financial security is not helped by their employers ripping them off. It is worse when you consider that these are workers who have also had their penalty rates eroded.

We have a Prime Minister who on the one hand says that he wants Australians to earn more money and keep more of it, but then he goes and does the exact opposite so that Australians earn less—and they do not have a leg to stand on. Let us be honest: impoverishing Australian workers—we all know that is in the coalition’s DNA. You just have to look at the federal government’s bungling of the JobKeeper payment. Let us consider the miraculous $60 billion worth of savings that could go to the industries that they ruled out. It could in fact go to casual workers who have otherwise lost work. It could go to higher education workers. It could go to our Dnata employees. There are close to 30 of them in Wyndham. I have picked up the phone and I have talked to most of them, and I can tell you they are desperate. They are absolutely outraged to be told any financial assistance needs to come from some foreign government. These are hardworking men and women who have spent decades, sometimes a lifetime, working in the airline catering industry, paying taxes and raising their families, and they are now left indefinitely destitute—because with the flick of a pen our Dnata workers and so many others could be provided the economic security they need during these challenging times.

But let us face it, acting in the best interest of workers has never been in the DNA of those opposite or their mates in Canberra. Instead of extending JobKeeper to more workers, their response is, ‘Raid your super’. Now, I was absolutely horrified upon finding out that 1.35 million Australians have successfully dipped into their superannuation. Almost a third of them are under the age of 30. And let us look at the numbers for another second, because about $3.6 billion has been paid in JobSeeker payments by the federal government. About $7.3 billion has been paid in JobKeeper payments. And yet over $11.12 billion has been withdrawn from superannuation accounts—more than the two put together.

I am not going to blame the people that chose to make those withdrawals. In fact I have spoken to quite a few people in my community that feel that they have been forced to make that decision during these challenging times. Because I understand that when you are out of a job and money is tight you will look anywhere for something to keep you and your family afloat. When you are faced with that kind of reality you do not have time to think about your retirement; you are thinking about the here and now. So our federal colleagues can advise people not to take this option, but we cannot blame them when they are in a position where they will take any option available to them.

Now, how does all of this relate to wage theft? Well, because we on this side of the house recognise that Victorian workers deserve to have their right to a fair day’s pay protected. And we are not afraid to put measures in place that punish and deter employers from treating their workers with contempt. And that is what this bill does; it criminalises wage theft and it establishes the wage inspectorate, who can investigate claims of wage underpayment in the workplace. They will be armed with the resources and ability to assist employees in learning about their rights at work. You know, how many of us can say that we did not learn about our rights at work until we were in our early 20s, if not later? If they investigate a claim of wage theft and find that an employer has ripped off their workers, they can refer them to prosecutors, who will then press charges.

This bill is a huge step forward for Victorian workers rights. It is the kind of response that Victorians expect from our government—expect from a Labor government. And we said we would make wage theft a crime—we said that—and now we have. I commend the bill to the house.