Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026

Ms JORDAN-BAIRD (Gorton) (12:12): I rise to speak in support of the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. This bill is about making our workplace system work better. It's about fairness, it's about secure jobs, and it's about sure making the system works for workers and employers alike.

Let me tell you a bit about myself and my first job, as some of my colleagues here have done in contributing to today's debate. As a teenager, I worked at a local burger joint. I was young, I was in my first job, and I was enthusiastic to get it right.

I believed that if you do the right thing and you work hard, you should be getting paid fairly. Meanwhile, my employers signed workers like me up to dodgy traineeships, which was designed to justify low wages. I learned back then—and I continue to understand now—that fair wages and conditions are not something to be taken for granted.

They're not something that has always been a given in this country. They're something that need to be fought for, and that's why I joined the Australian Labor Party and why I couldn't be prouder to be part of the Albanese Labor government, because we are a government that has delivered the biggest workplace reforms in a generation. We have closed loopholes, we've strengthened job security and we've helped get wages moving again.

But reform isn't something you do once and walk away from. We need to keep improving the system where we see the gaps, and this is exactly what this bill does. One important part of this bill is supporting the work of the Fair Work Commission.

The Fair Work Commission plays a vital role in Australia's workplace relations system. It helps resolve disputes, it helps protect workers, and it provides certainty for businesses, but its workload has increased significantly. This bill includes practical changes to help the commission work more efficiently.

It will reduce unnecessary delays, it will deal with vexatious claims, and it will make sure that workers and employers can have their matters resolved more quickly. It's important to note that these changes don't reduce protections for workers, they simply make the system work better. A strong workplace relations system should be accessible, and it should be efficient.

That is exactly what these reforms are about. This bill also supports good-faith bargaining. Enterprise agreements can deliver higher wages, secure jobs and better conditions.

They can also deliver flexibility and productivity for employers. When workers and employers sit down together and negotiate in good faith, everybody benefits. This bill removes a barrier that prevents government spending from supporting employers who negotiate enterprise agreements in good faith.

Importantly, there's normally a requirement for this to happen, but it gives government the ability to support fair wages and secure jobs where appropriate. Labor believes good jobs are good for workers, and we believe good jobs are good for productivity as well. This bill is important, and I know the effects of what we vote on in this chamber will be felt right across the country.

I know it will be felt in my electorate in Melbourne's western suburbs. Gorton is one of the fastest growing electorates in the country. There are about 80 babies born a week in the city of Melton alone.

We are young, with an average age of 35, many with young families, and we're really diverse as well. In so many ways, my electorate is a microcosm of multicultural Australia with its vitality, its rich cultural and linguistic makeup, and its aspirations for the future. A good, hardworking community like mine deserves good measures to ensure that the Fair Work Act is working for them—for the Fair Work Commission to perform its vital functions effectively, for good-faith bargaining to be supported for employers and employees alike and for road transport contractors to be able to access proper protections.

Another really important measure of this bill is support for truckies. Our truck drivers keep Australia moving. They deliver the goods our households and businesses rely on every single day.

In 2024, we introduced new protections in the Fair Work Commission for regulated road transport contractors, including truckies and small road transport businesses. Previously, it was hard for truck drivers working as independent contractors to challenge unfair conduct by contracting companies. Their contracts could be terminated without good reason, and they had a few ways to challenge contracts with unfair terms.

Our closing loopholes reforms made recourse through the Fair Work Commission available to these workers so that if they were unfairly terminated or entered a contract with unfair terms, it was a way to make things right. But something still wasn't quite right. Truck drivers face significant costs to do their jobs: fuel, maintenance, insurance.

For many owner-drivers, those costs are substantial, and, for that reason, conventional high-income thresholds don't always reflect the reality of the industry. The closing loopholes reforms created a contractor high-income threshold, which meant that some road transport contractors couldn't access recourse through the Fair Work Commission because their income was too high.

This bill recognises that this threshold didn't reflect the real situation for road transport contractors and amends that, allowing a separate high-income threshold for road transport contractors, meaning more truckies and small-road businesses will be able to access protections against unfair contracts and unfair termination. This bill reflects our broader commitment to supporting truckies.

It's a tough time for every Australian on our roads, especially for those of us who are making their living from the road transport industry. Truckies deserve a fair go, and that's why we've extended the fuel excise relief for the month of July and slashed the heavy vehicle road user charge by 16 cents for the same period. It's why we've paved the way for the Fair Work Commission fuel cost recovery chain order, which requires parties across the road transport contractual chains to pay more to providers of road transport services, shielding road transport workers from the full brunt of increases to fuel prices.

It's why we've amended the Fair Work Act to allow emergency powers to deal with surging fuel prices causing imminent risk to transport businesses and our national supply chains. It's why we've extended debt repayment arrangements available for businesses facing fuel-related financial pressures and started the $1 billion Economic Resilience Program under the National Reconstruction Fund to provide zero-interest loans to SMEs, including heavy-vehicle operators.

It's also why we're focused on improving road infrastructure around the country, including in my electorate of Gorton in the western suburbs of Melbourne. I know how important quality road infrastructure is for those in my community. It's important for mums and dads driving their kids to school; it's important for workers, who need good roads to deliver them safely from their place of work; and it's important for truckies, who absolutely rely on quality road infrastructure to make their jobs possible.

It's why we're fixing the Western Freeway between Caroline Springs and Melton, investing a billion dollars for more lanes and better interchanges, improving the commute for the over 86,000 vehicles travelling on this stretch of road on the Western Freeway every single day. I'm laser focused on doing better for the west on road infrastructure and making sure that our truckies can deliver the goods Aussie households and businesses rely on safely and efficiently on our roads.

I'm also a proud member of the Transport Workers' Union, a union that represents over 20,000 members in Victoria and Tasmania, many of whom are truck drivers. I'm so proud to be part of this union that's dedicated to a fair go for truckies. I thank them for all of their work and advocacy and all they do to make sure that they represent the voices of workers.

Labor will always stand with transport workers, because these are the workers who spend long hours away from their families, workers who keep our supermarkets stocked, workers who keep our businesses running and workers who keep our economy moving. This bill also makes some practical changes to support reform in the construction industry. The Albanese Labor government took the strongest possible action to address serious issues within the CFMEU by legislating for the appointment of an administrator to the Construction and General Division of the CFMEU, and these changes will help support that important work.

This bill gives the administrator an appropriate timeframe to prepare and submit a biannual financial report to the minister, as required under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009. Enterprise agreements that are genuinely agreed and negotiated in good faith can be a very transparent and effective way of delivering secure jobs and fair conditions for workers, as well as flexibility and productivity for employers.

Under current legislation, the Commonwealth is legally prohibited from considering preferencing employers with enterprise agreements when making funding decisions. We're removing that barrier, allowing government purchasing power to promote fairer wages and more secure jobs through enterprise agreements where it is appropriate to do so. This bill also supports the National Construction Industry Forum because cooperation between workers, employers and government matters.

When people work together, we get better outcomes. When we tackle problems together, we build a stronger industry and a stronger economy as well. This builds on a number of other workplace reforms this Labor government has made for Australians across the country.

We delivered same job, same pay; we closed loopholes that undermined wages and conditions; we strengthened protections against wage theft; and we have helped deliver real wage growth. For too long, workers were told they should be grateful just to have a job. Meanwhile, wages were stagnant, job security declined and people were working harder and falling behind.

Unlike the three right-wing parties of Australia, we believe that hardworking Aussies deserve secure work and hardworking Aussies deserve decent pay and dignity at work. Our same job, same pay laws have benefited thousands of workers across the country with pay increases, because our government identified something important. If you're doing the same job with the same experience while wearing the same uniform, it's only fair you should get paid the same.

Our payday super reforms are once-in-a-generation reforms to fix unpaid super, because workers deserve to get paid for their full entitlements, and Australians deserve to retire with confidence and financial security as well. It's no surprise that the three right-wing parties of Australia have not in the past or here today supported our workplace reforms and workers' protections.

Take our recent tax cuts. Our budget is ensuring that all 13 million workers in Australia are getting a tax cut, with the working Australians tax offset and the thousand-dollar instant tax deduction, as well as better pay for workers and a fair go for first home buyers. These are tax cuts that put more money in the pockets of everyday Australians.

Combined, we've cut income taxes five times in three different ways, putting nearly $3,000 a year in the pockets of the average worker by 2028. Those opposite talk about helping workers, but, when push comes to shove, they vote against it on the floor of parliament. The same can be said for our minimum wage increase.

The Fair Work Commission goes through a lot of deliberation about how to set this minimum wage. It looks at business conditions. It looks at profitability as well as the needs of working people.

It's settled on what I think is a really responsible wage increase. It's a real wage increase for workers. We've got to remember these are the lowest paid workers in the country, and they deserve a real wage increase.

The fact that the right-wing parties of Australia cannot bring themselves to back a minimum wage increase is really appalling. They do not represent the interests of workers. Let me tell you, the protections for workers happen in this chamber, not just with words but with votes on bills like this one.

This bill is about practical changes that make the system work better, changes that support workers and changes that support businesses. I think of our nurses in our community, our hospitality workers, our teachers, our truck drivers, our warehouse workers, our tradies and our small-business owners. I think of these workers in our community because they work hard and they do the right thing.

But that's not always enough. You need the right systems in place to support you. That's what this bill is about.

If you want workers to be treated fairly, then you've got to fight for it, and in this chamber, we're fighting for the protection of workers. Fairness matters. Secure jobs matter.

A fair go matters. That is why we on this side of the chamber will always fight for that—because Labor is the party of secure jobs, fair wages and safe workplaces. I commend this bill to the House.