QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (14:58): Thanks, Senator Sheldon. I know you've spent a lot of your life campaigning for the exact changes that have come into force today. Today is a great day for the tens of thousands of people in Australia who work in the gig economy.

From today, gig economy workers, such as those who do food and drink delivery, are finally going to get paid a guaranteed fair wage of $32 an hour as a minimum. What that means is that your food will taste better, knowing that the people who are delivering it are getting a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. This is a direct result of Labor's introduction of world-leading laws which we passed to close the loopholes that meant these workers were being underpaid.

Of course, we will never forget that these laws were opposed by the Liberals, the Nationals and the One Nation party, with Senator O'Sullivan at the time calling it the single worst piece of industrial relations policy for three decades. That's what the Liberals and their friends in One Nation think about workers getting a fair go. For too long, food delivery workers fell through the cracks without fair pay, sick leave or basic protections.

Labor have now changed the law because every worker deserves a fair go. We legislated a model for minimum standards for these workers because it was clear their model of employment was not a traditional employee relationship, nor were they true independent contractors. As a result, they were falling through our country's workplace relations safety net.

That's now changed due to the laws that Labor have passed. Importantly, we left it to the independent Fair Work Commission to decide when and how these minimum standards should apply in response to applications from parties. This approach gave the commission the flexibility to respond to the new ways of work we see emerging in our economy—by ensuring there are minimum protections in place—without trying to force workers into a standard employment relationship.

Last week, the Fair Work Commission agreed that workers for the likes of Uber Eats and DoorDash should earn a safety net wage of up to $32 per hour. It also agreed that protection for these workers should be strengthened. That's a world first, and it's happened under Labor.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Sheldon, first supplementary?