Thursday, 18 June 2026

 Darren CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (14:21): My question is to the Premier. Victorian gig economy workers are often hyperconcentrated in growth corridors around the state and are increasingly getting angry as they fall further behind this exploitative employment contract. Premier, will you bring forward legislation to establish new employment standards such as sick leave, long service leave and annual leave to give some employment justice to these gig economy workers?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:22): I thank the member for South Barwon for his question. He has identified a group of workers in our economy who are in insecure work as a result of a range of factors, some of them global, some of them domestic. That is why we are always, on our side of politics, the Labor Party and the labour movement together, looking at ways that we can strengthen worker protections, looking at ways that can support workers rights at work and looking at ways that we can protect them with secure work. I refer to the earlier answers I was giving regarding Australia’s first publicly owned apprenticeship academy as an example of how we have recognised that we have needed to change systems to be able to provide support for, in this instance, young kids who were not having the opportunity, as previous generations have had, to be able to get the training they needed to go on and work in a great industry.

Another really good example – and I know I should not offend the rules of the house by anticipating debate – is to point to our existing announcements around working from home and protecting workers rights to work from home. If you look at the record of industrial relations advancements in this country, it has always been Labor parties and labour movements that have looked at how we need to change the law, how we need to campaign for better rights for workers. And I say this: now more than ever this work is even more important, at a time when, as a result of global forces, workers are feeling less secure in their work. They know that wages are not keeping up with the inflationary pressures. Again, whether they are caused by conflict in the Middle East or successive interest rate rises, that is having a real impact on household budgets when wages do not keep up with those inflationary pressures. That is why our Labor government has delivered real cost-of-living relief in a range of measures, but more recently with 20 per cent off car registration.

In answer to the member for South Barwon’s question about what more we will do, we will be continuing to look at ways that we can strengthen and protect workers rights, but particularly those in insecure work, who need a Labor government on their side more than ever before. And if you need evidence of that, you need to look no further than comments that were made just yesterday. One Nation do not believe that workers should be protected. They believe that bosses should have the right to make it easier to sack their workers. They do not believe that women should have equal pay. We know that the One Nation–Liberal partnership would cut workers’ services, cut workers’ wages and cut into the Victorian community.

 Darren CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (14:25): The Long Service Leave Act, Premier, is a state-based act. Will you bring forward legislation this term to provide long service leave for these gig economy workers?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:25): I thank again the member for South Barwon for his supplementary question. We have no announcements to make today about further ways that we are looking at protecting workers at a time when, as a result of those global pressures, they need protection from a Labor government, and they need protecting from a One Nation–Liberal right-wing partnership that have made it very clear that they would go after their rights at work. We will continue to do that work. The legislation I am focused on right now, of course, is our working-from-home legislation that is going to save families time and save families money. An example of why we need to legislate is because we know bosses and Liberals want to take away workers’ opportunity to work from home.