Thursday, 24 February 2022

Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Mr FOLEY:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Mr STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (16:38): It is real pleasure to rise to speak on the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment Bill 2022. With 20 minutes to go until adjournment, it is good to finish this parliamentary sitting week with what is a very good bill for a wide variety of reasons and one where there is bipartisanship, which is great to see.

This bill strengthens many routine public health functions, addressing issues identified in the recent review of the Public Health and Wellbeing Regulations 2019 as well as constraints in the act relating to testing and data collection. The bill also delivers on outstanding government commitments stemming from the Victorian inquiry into the labour hire industry and insecure work and the Small Business Regulation Review (Visitor Economy) Action Statement.

The bill amends the act to allow for the registration of lower risk prescribed accommodation, reducing the regulatory burden and costs for the owners of small visitor accommodation, such as bed and breakfasts, boutique guesthouses and farmstays. It also includes accommodation related to labour hire arrangements within the prescribed accommodation framework, ensuring that labour hire workers who support critical Victorian industries are provided with accommodation that meets public health standards. It expands testing data collection and further analysis powers to help improve our management and understanding of infectious diseases and the risks to public health. It expands the circumstances in which the chief health officer may make an examination and testing order for the monitoring and control of infectious diseases, enabling a more targeted and potentially less restrictive public health response. It introduces a civil statutory immunity for officers undertaking public health functions under the act, bringing Victoria into line with all Australian jurisdictions that already provide personal liability protections through their respective public health legislation. And it removes stigmatising references to HIV and hepatitis C from the act, contributing to the Andrews Labor government’s commitment to eliminate stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with hepatitis C and HIV.

I will spend the remainder of this contribution focusing on one particular part of the bill, because this is a fairly wideranging bill, and that is how we are delivering on the next steps to implement the recommendations of that historic Victorian inquiry into the labour hire industry and insecure work. It is fair to say that one of the main missions of this government in the more than seven years that we have been in office has been to ensure that every single worker in our state, every single person in our state, experiences the dignity of work. And it is not just about having a job, it is not just about being in employment, it is about being treated fairly.

Our party, all those years ago, was established by the trade union movement to fight for fairness for workers. As the economy changes there are new challenges that are presented for workers in our state, indeed our country. And it is the labour movement collectively—it is trade unions and it is Labor governments, including this Victorian Labor government—that stands shoulder to shoulder with workers to ensure that workers in various industries, the labour hire industry is one and the gig economy industry is another, are not held back in this policy vacuum and therefore exploited.

It is for that reason that in my inaugural speech seven years ago I talked about labour hire. I talked about labour hire because I was so very concerned about insecure work, because if you are in insecure employment you cannot hope to enjoy the sort of dignity that employment can provide you. If you are in insecure employment it makes it very, very difficult to apply for a loan at the bank or to plan for the future. We saw that the proportion of workers who were in an insecure work arrangement was increasing year on year, and that is something that I know this government was very concerned about. Unfortunately there were so many unscrupulous operators in the labour hire space who were taking advantage of that uncertainty, because the people who benefit from insecure work are not the workers, not the community at large, but these larger businesses who are seeking to make significant profits at all costs.

In my parliamentary secretary role I have done quite a bit of work with the Treasurer around the gig economy. We held an inquiry into the on-demand workforce, which made 20 recommendations. This government has adopted all of those recommendations either in full or in principle, and we are working away to implement those. What that is about is ensuring that these workers who have found themselves, due to technology changes that have made the gig economy a very widespread and popular platform, stuck in this policy vacuum are protected.

Of course the thing about our government is that even though industrial relations were referred to the federal government back in the 1990s, we will nonetheless do everything we can within our own remit to ensure that we protect the rights of workers, and we are doing that in terms of workers in the gig economy just like we have been doing that when it comes to labour hire.

The next step is what is in this bill, and that is to ensure that labour hire workers are given appropriate accommodation. I will quote from the report of the Victorian inquiry into the labour hire industry and insecure work:

It is apparent that the Victorian regulatory framework outlined in chapter 4 has not been effective to address the problems with provision of accommodation associated with labour hire arrangements, which have been illustrated in evidence provided to the Inquiry and from other sources. The incidence of these accommodation models appears to have grown extremely quickly, consistent with the general growth of labour hire arrangements and the use of temporary migrant workers over the last 10 years or so.

I think in many ways you could have written the same paragraph about the gig economy as well. As I said, where technology has changed, where the economic landscape has changed, these changes have happened very quickly, and governments, state and federal, have had to keep up with those changes in order to preserve a bit of dignity in workers and in this sort of work.

The bill responds to recommendations 9 and 10 of the inquiry by ensuring that all accommodation provided to a worker under or in connection with a labour hire arrangement will be required to be registered with the local council and meet public health standards. This will help prevent all of those things that we read about in the report—things like overcrowding—and also regulate the numbers of bathrooms and toilets, maintenance, cleanliness and the register of occupants. We knew that the situation was bad, but I think that this historic report really did highlight just how poorly a lot of these workers in the labour hire industry were treated.

In my last 50 seconds I just want to give a big shout-out to the union that I am a member of, the United Workers Union, previously the National Union of Workers, which did a sterling job when it came to upholding the rights of these very vulnerable workers employed by some unscrupulous operators and pushing very, very hard for this inquiry into labour hire. Thank goodness we were elected in 2014, because I really could not see this sort of action taken by those opposite. It is only Labor governments and trade unions who protect the rights of workers.

Mr KENNEDY (Hawthorn) (16:48): I am pleased to speak on this Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment Bill 2022. However, may I join others in the opportunity to thank our health workers, both in Hawthorn and in Victoria, for the incredible work they have done throughout this pandemic.

Our commitment as a government to public health has been incredibly clear throughout not just the last two years but our entire time in government. Broadly, some do not consider the importance of public health until a crisis, but our public health system operates every day to keep Victorians safe. We should also remember our public health workers and broader system in future times without a crisis when they will need support, reforms and investment after this pandemic. This bill, by amending the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, will strengthen routine public health actions, keeping Victorians safe.

I will say just a few words about improving the standards of labour hire accommodation, infectious diseases and expanding testing data collection, and statutory immunity for public health officers—three aspects that I will just touch on in the time that I have. I would like to talk about how this bill protects labour hire workers. The labour hire industry has grown over the last 30 years to become a significant Victorian employer and a major contributor to our economy. However, we are all aware of the horrific exploitation of workers, in particular vulnerable and migrant workers, that was unearthed around 2015. In the subsequent submissions and report it is clear how dreadfully these workers were treated and that they were subject to poor standards in health, poor standards in safety and were ultimately forced to accept a poor standard of living. Now, this is unacceptable, and as we are a government committed to the protection of all workers, this bill is part of a process of rectifying these issues in the labour hire industry. As Australians we are generally proud of the working conditions we have fought for in this country. We rightfully expect these higher standards, and they should apply with no exceptions. Indeed struggles like the Eureka Stockade have been some of the defining moments in which our state and country have been forged. In protecting that legacy we cannot simply rely on history. We need to remain vigilant to protect those principles as the world of work changes. This amendment is very much in that spirit.

The final report of the Victorian inquiry into the labour hire industry and insecure work leaves us in no doubt that our current framework for labour hire accommodation has failed to adequately regulate the standard accommodation provided through labour hire arrangements. This has to change, and this is the point of this legislation. The Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 in its current state does provide a regulatory framework that requires prescribed accommodation to be registered with local councils, which are the regulators for said prescribed accommodation. Unfortunately some providers simply commenced arrangements to avoid the framework. If prescribed accommodation is not registered under Victorian laws, they remain invisible and councils are unable to regulate them. I will not delve into the egregious practices of this act or indeed the broad common decency committed by some of these providers. What I will say is what I would hope would be an uncontroversial statement, and that is: every worker deserves to work and live in safe, clean and habitable conditions. This bill will operate to broaden the scope of prescribed accommodation, ensuring that all labour hire accommodation for workers will be registered with local councils and will meet public health standards.

This government, and indeed the Labor Party itself, has a long, proud history of protecting working people. We have been dedicated for over a century to protecting our workers. Today the fight to protect our workers continues, and it is often in relation to migrant workers. It is simply disgraceful the way migrant workers have been treated in this country. Even a cursory search through our national media will yield countless reports of migrant workers being underpaid, exploited and at times dying preventable deaths. I am proud of this bill because it does more on this vital issue, but we must continue to protect workers, particularly migrant workers. They must be treated not simply as an accessible pool of labour but as the living, feeling human beings that they are. We cannot afford to take a laissez-faire approach to workers rights. The statistics and anecdotes sadly tell us that workers are still subject to poor treatment and substandard labour hire accommodation. This bill will help fix housing for many migrant and domestic workers. I have had vulnerable temporary visa holders approach my office when they have had nowhere else to turn. My electorate of Hawthorn contains Swinburne University, a fine institution which attracts students from around the globe. However, too many students have found employment where they are underpaid, work in dangerous conditions and encounter standards that in no way befit an advanced democracy like ours. We must do better. This bill is part of this approach, because these students are smart, they are dedicated, they are driven and they do not deserve to suffer. I have spent my life in education, and no student or worker deserves to be treated like this.

So to expanding the infectious diseases testing data collection. This pandemic has radically changed the way in which we deal with the control and management of infectious diseases. Subsequently this bill will expand testing data collection and analysis, improving our management and understanding of infectious diseases and public health risks. The COVID pandemic has underscored the value of this type of data as all test results have been vital to contact tracing and the assessment of the extent of COVID spread. As these regulations strike a fair balance between privacy considerations and the need to inform appropriate public health measures, where possible data will be de-identified and aggregated. However, it must be remembered that this data is of paramount importance to our general public health.

The third one that I picked out is the statutory immunity for public health officers. This pandemic has brought out the worst in some people but the best in others—no surprises there—and our public health officials have been some of the best, including the chief health officer, delegates of the CHO and authorised officers who undertake vital work delivering public health priorities. Unfortunately the anti-science and anti-vax crowd have been a sad sight throughout these last few months. Many people may not have known that Victoria had a CHO in years gone by, but over the last two years we have seen how essential this position can be to a thorough public health response. As a state we have been ably served by the current CHO, Brett Sutton, and I think he has become synonymous with the role for many Victorians. We need to attract and retain high-quality individuals to these roles, something that the possibility of being named in litigation unnecessarily impedes. They are employed to keep Victoria safe. They should not be sued for doing their job, which is why this bill will introduce a civil statutory immunity for the CHO, delegates and other authorised officers. This will bring Victoria into line with other jurisdictions, as they already have civil liability protections for officers performing public health functions under their public health legislation. A litany of accountability measures will remain, and this immunity does not cover criminal liability. This is about updating the protections for public health officers in order to allow them to fulfil their functions without undue fear of future litigation. All of us should be thanking them for their hard work under difficult circumstances over the last few years.

I commend this bill to the house.

Mr DONNELLAN (Narre Warren North) (16:58): Thank you, Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to provide a long contribution on this bill. I really just wanted to acknowledge in relation to health the enormously good work that our aged care sector did during the period of COVID over the last two years. You will note that there were fortunately no deaths in our public aged care sector. These facilities represent about 10 per cent of the aged care sector across the state, many of them in Ballarat and Bendigo, as the Deputy Speaker would know. I just want to acknowledge the great work that the nurses, the staff, the cleaners and the like did, and I would also like to acknowledge the great work that the public servants did in that time, including the work with the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, which was a joint response with the federal government in relation to issues in the private sector. You will note that in public sector aged care we had no deaths, because of the quality of the training and the amount of nurses we had—one to every seven clients at our aged care facilities. I really just wanted to put that on the record. As the former minister responsible in that space, I was incredibly proud of the great work that our public servants, nurses, cleaners, cooks—the whole lot—did together during that period of time.

But obviously this bill is not about thanking our marvellous aged care sector workers but, I guess, expanding the opportunities to collect data more than anything else. They will work with the sector to actually identify the data they need.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The time set down for consideration of items on the government business program has arrived, and I am required to interrupt business.

Motion agreed to.

Read second time.

Circulated amendments

Circulated government amendments as follows agreed to:

1. Clause 24, line 13, omit “Review” and insert “Appeals”.

2. Clause 24, line 28, omit “Review” and insert “Appeals”.

Third reading

Motion agreed to.

Read third time.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The bill will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested.