MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator GHOSH (Western Australia) (16:46): Industrial relations reform in this country that advances the interests of workers is done by the trade union movement, it's done by the Australian Labor Party and it's done by Labor governments. This government has introduced the most far-reaching industrial reforms in a generation, and they reflect those commitments, those values and those principles that underpin the Labor movement.

It's not just about announcements; it's about actual change. When you look at what this government's done and what this government is going to do, you see a transformation in the superannuation system in Australia, and you see a transformation in the way wage theft is dealt with. The Albanese Labor government legislated Australia's first federal criminal offence for intentional underpayments.

There's been a strengthening of wage theft penalties. Importantly, there's been the empowerment of the Fair Work Ombudsman and an increase in funding to enforce these claims. There are a number of different measures that have made it easier for both unions and individuals to bring claims to courts and the commission and to get their cases heard.

The key focus of this debate, though, and the key driver of these key reforms has been the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association of Australia and its branches around Australia, its members, its delegates, its industrial officers and its leadership. It's not to say there isn't more work to be done here, but the role of the SDA in relation to being a leading voice on wage theft needs to be acknowledged.

The union has run major union funded underpayment class actions. Its underpayment class action against Aldi reached a proposed settlement of $55 million in July 2026, getting money back into the pockets of workers. Its Eudunda Farmers Foodland case settled for $5.5 million in 2025.

That was part of a formal submission made to the 2026 wage theft inquiry. That Eudunda case was interesting. It was resolving a case first brought to the Federal Court in 2021.

They got money into workers' pockets based on things that they had been denied based on wage theft. I acknowledge there the role of the SDA secretary in South Australia, Josh Peak, who said at the time: The SDA is proud to have secured $5.5 million in backpay … This is one of the largest retail underpayment cases in South Australian history. The SDA, along with the ACTU, pressed for the federal wage theft criminalisation provisions that the Labor government has done.

That was particularly in response to underpayment and retail scandals at Woolworths and Coles in 2019 and onwards. The Albanese Labor government adopted it and legislated it as part of its Closing Loopholes package. But there is more work to do.

It is important that wage theft cases and wage underpayment cases are discovered properly. While the Albanese government has made changes to how unions have access to records, there is probably more work to be done in this space, and we would acknowledge that. We acknowledge that there is an important role for trade unions to be able to enter workplaces and inspect records in order to discover these cases on behalf of workers.

I go to my home state of Western Australia, where, under section 49I of the Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA), unions have that power. They have the power, the right of entry, to go into workplaces and inspect records and to act on underpayment in wage theft cases. But that power, in terms of its scope of operation, is limited by the scope of the federal industrial relations powers, so we need an equivalent provision in federal law.

Again, the SDA continues to be a leader in this space. I want to take you to something that the national secretary of the SDA, Gerard Dwyer, has said. He's urging the government to restore the rights of unions to inspect time and wage records and conduct spot checks, expand the low-cost small claims jurisdiction, which the Albanese government is in the process of doing, and treat unpaid superannuation explicitly as wage theft.

I also want to acknowledge the role of the SDA and the role of the Labor Party in relation to under-18s' superannuation. The SDA has a long-running campaign, called Super on Every Dollar, which is aimed at ensuring that those people aged under 18 receive superannuation on every dollar they earn, regardless of how many hours a week they work. That's a very important development, and I was proud to be a member and a delegate at the ALP's national conference in July where that was included in the party's platform.

What we will come to see is that we will get super on every dollar for those people who are under 18 years of age. But, to take a big step back on all of this, it is Labor governments, Labor members, the trade union movement and the rank and file of the Labor Party that deliver serious industrial relations reforms in this country. We are in the process of delivering groundbreaking, once-in-a-generation, if not once-in-a-century, industrial relations reform, and credit must go to the Albanese Labor government and the wonderful work of the trade union movement.