STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator O'NEILL (New South Wales) (13:32): I want to speak about safety in the workplace and how critical the role of our great union movement has been in advancing that incrementally to the place where Australians can go to work and come home safely. It certainly had that expectation. I want to acknowledge, particularly, today the work of the SDA, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, who have now called, in addition to their long-running campaign entitled No One Deserves a Serve, for the introduction of workplace protection audits.

Why do we need this? Many young Australians get their first job, ever, working in the retail sector—fast food, Coles or Woolies or some other shop in your local area. What we're seeing, sadly, in our country right now—a great shame—is that on the front line there is abuse and violence for these workers.

It's not acceptable. These are the young people, in particular, and the women and men working across our nation that keep communities running. They service our food, they process our groceries and they're helping families every single day.

But we are seeing, too often, that they're subjected to threats, harassment and intimidation simply for doing their jobs. The SDA proposal for workplace protection orders sadly, at this point of time, is necessary but also is a reasonable request in terms of requesting these workers. Such orders, if they were to come into place, would allow courts to prohibit known offenders from entering a workplace or contacting particular employees.

It's a commonsense protection. Sadly, what we know is that the people who are operating this way—people who are willing to go into our shops and threaten workers—are repeat offenders. I commend this very important campaign about safety, dignity and respect.

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