ACTU – Turnbull: Where are the jobs? Where is the growth?

Parliament resumes and working families ask Turnbull: Where are the jobs? Where is the growth?

In the first parliamentary sitting week of 2017, the Australian Council of Trade Unions is calling on the Federal Government to set out a clear economic plan to create secure, well paid jobs.

Australian workers are experiencing stagnant wages, less job security and a Government that stands idly by as businesses exploit loopholes in industrial legislation to drive down the wages and conditions of their employees.

Australians are tired of government policies that reduce their living standards while businesses get away with not paying tax.

Australian Unions will pursue an agenda to protect and enhance workplace conditions for working families including:

• real wage increases for all workers,
• tightening loopholes in the Fair Work Act that allow employers to rip off workers,
• preserving weekend and overtime penalty rates,
• protecting and enhancing paid parental leave, and,
• opposing the Government's plan to take money off pensioners, people with disabilities, parents and the unemployed while pursuing a $50 billion tax cut for the top end of town.

Malcolm Turnbull and his Government's capacity to address these everyday concerns of working Australians will determine the longevity of his Prime Ministership.

Quotes attributable to Ged Kearney, ACTU President:

• "Last year was a lost year for Australia's economy. Malcolm Turnbull did nothing to make it easier for ordinary income earners to pay the bills and make ends meet. It is clear that Mr Turnbull's plan to create jobs or growth is nothing more than empty rhetoric.
• "Big companies are increasingly exploiting loopholes in the Fair Work Act to drive down wages and strip workplace protections, yet the Turnbull Government is only interested in changing the laws to give a free pass to company bosses to increase profit margins at the expense of workers and their families.
• "The Government is happy to amend the law so that big companies no longer even have to be fully compliant with workplace laws but won't take action to stop the termination of agreements that cost workers tens of thousands of dollars, their rights around shifts, leave and other entitlements.
• "And it seems Minister Cash will bend-over backward to appease mining companies but isn't prepared to protect the wages and conditions of workers from being stripped away when those executives decide to cancel their workplace agreements.
• "Australians will come together and take action. Australians will not stand by while Malcolm Turnbull's policies make life harder for families."