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Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Page: 127

Mr GEORGANAS (Hindmarsh) (22:29): In the time available I will try to make the important points on an announcement that was made late last week by Westpac that over 500 jobs were to be axed. Many of these jobs were to be in South Australia, in my electorate—in the suburb of Lockleys, which has one of the largest Westpac call centres in Australia. Out of the 560 jobs that are going to be axed across the nation, 150 will be sent offshore to places like India, where a lot of the backroom work is being done. This is after Westpac announced more than $6 billion in record profits last year and paid their top executive close to $10 million.

This is not about survival or about a business that is not doing well; this is about making more megaprofits than are already being made. The call centre at Lockleys had a lot of state government support and money put into it so that it could come to South Australia in the mid 1990s. Back then it was set up by Westpac and it was called The Mortgage Centre. It employed 1,400 people. Today, as a result of these announcements being made intermittently, over periods of time, there are fewer than 900 workers working there. What is even more ironic is that the workers have been asked to train their overseas replacements, who have been flown to Australia—under what visa I do not know—and then the workers lose their jobs. It is like asking someone to dig a grave and then jump into it. You can see how upset these workers would be.

I also feel deeply for those workers who are being forced to train their counterparts and then be sacked. I am very pleased that the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship has undertaken to investigate how these workers are securing visas to Australia and to ensure that they are not circumventing the intentions of our skilled worker program. As I said, this is akin to being asked to dig your own grave. It is very insulting and very unfair for those workers.

I have had a huge amount of feedback from the electorate about this issue, and the message is unequivocal: we want Australian companies to employ people here in Australia and keep the jobs here. Despite this, many Australian owned companies, like banks and telecommunication companies, continue to busily recruit foreign labour to do these jobs overseas. Anyone who has had cause to deal with some of these companies by phone in recent years has probably noticed it. You would probably—not unreasonably—have questioned why this work cannot be done in Australia.

The short answer is that it can be done here in Australia. Our top four banks—Westpac, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ and NAB—are among some of the biggest in the world by market capitalisation. Last year they announced record megaprofits of more than $24 billion. There is nothing wrong with that; it is fantastic that they have megaprofits. At the same time, I think they have a duty to the community and the country that they are in. Crying poor is no excuse. It is not the role of the government to tell private companies how to run their businesses. People cannot stop them from sending jobs overseas if that is what they want to do. They are free enterprises. But I think it is important to let the consumer know, at the point of transaction or the point of business, that their information and the transaction they are signing up to is all going to go overseas.

We have 'Made in Australia' products for those consumers who want to purchase Australian goods. I cannot see why we cannot have the same thing in the service industry, so the consumer can choose which company they want to do business with. I can tell you now that a lot of Australian consumers would choose the companies that keep the jobs here in Australia and do not offshore their work to workers overseas.

This could be done simply through a logo, just as we have with the 'Made in Australia' logo. People have the ability to choose a product that is made in Australia. We should give them the same choice for the service industry. The logo could be applied to companies who choose to employ their workforce entirely in Australia and similarly support local Australian economies with those jobs.

Such a certification would give consumers information, certainty and choice when making decisions about services they use. That is currently not available. Right now, if you sign up for a new bank account, insurance policy or telephone account, no-one tells you that your private information could go overseas to be processed by an employee who has taken an Australian job.

With an 'Australian operated' logo, many people in the local community—workers, customers and families—could choose to support the local economy and keep our economy strong. It is not unreasonable for customers to presume that an Australian owned company is operating from within Australia, yet that is not currently the case. I call on Westpac to think carefully about the offshoring of these jobs and the impact that has on those workers in my electorate. (Time Expired)

The SPEAKER: Order! It being later than 10.30 pm, the debate is interrupted. The House stands adjourned until 9 am tomorrow.

House adjourned at 22:35