Mr SNOWDON (10:33 AM) —Let me first express my disappointment at not being able to participate in the second reading debate on the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Bill 2005. I think that is a travesty for many of us on this side of the House. We come into this place to articulate and represent the views of our constituents. We are left in a position, in a debate like this, where it is guillotined and we are prohibited from expressing our views and representing their interests in this place. I think the government should be condemned for it. I know I will be belling the cat long and loud about the way in which the Australian community has been abused in this place by the Prime Minister and the minister at the table, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister, in the way they have dealt with this piece of legislation—given that it is big, given its impact on Australian families.

I was trying to contemplate who in this chamber had actually spoken about people who live in the bush. I live in what people might call the bush—a small town: Alice Springs. My electorate encompasses in excess of 80 reasonably large Indigenous communities and comprises an Indigenous population of about 40 per cent. How will these people be served by this legislation? How will people who are the most disadvantaged in our community be served by this legislation? What we know already is that they find it hard to get into the labour market. What we know already is that, when they go along to an employer, they do it with trepidation. But what we also know is that they have had, as a backdrop, the reality that we have had an award system that has been a great foundation to their ability to get decent conditions.

Inevitably, under this legislation that will all go. The most susceptible in our community, those most open to abuse, those who do not have the ability to ring up their QC or knock on the door of an accountant, because they live in a remote community and may not have access to a telephone in any event—what do they do when confronted by an employer who says, ‘Here’s the deal, Son; take it or leave it’?

Mr Tuckey —They can ring the union!

Mr SNOWDON —Oh, they can ring the union. You are as pathetic here as you have ever been. What we know about this is that those people, the most vulnerable in our community, are going to be hurt by this legislation in ways that have not been foreseen by the government. We know that this is true also of people who live in regional Australia. All of the things that the government says will safeguard their interests—how do they access those in the first instance? We know it will not happen. We know it does not happen. The legislation allows individual contracts to undermine the rights of workers under collective agreements and awards, eliminating penalty rates, shift loadings, overtime, holiday pay and other award conditions. But it is the lack of protection for unfair dismissal that in my view undermines completely the concept of what a fair go is.

If you are working out bush, and you are away from transport and legal services and have nowhere to live because you have been kicked out of the company camp, what do you do? What do you do under this legislation? How are your rights preserved under this legislation? They simply are not. The government has failed to make the case that the laws will create jobs, lift productivity or improve living standards. Where is the community involvement if the new legislation allows businesses to unilaterally determine the pay and employment conditions of employees, free from discussion with and cooperation from unions, collective bargaining awards, industrial tribunals and workers themselves? Where is it?

I have been a not always happy but proud unionist all my working life. My first job was on a building site here in Canberra at the university, as a member of the BLF. I can tell you that I was looked after by the union. I was made aware of my responsibilities as an employee but protected by the union. What we are seeing now, in all its iterations, would see the construction industry attacked and the union movement—that is, the ability of people to collectively bargain, to come together as a group—severely undermined and threatened. (Time expired)