Labor has always been about supporting workers.

That’s why we’ve passed legislation to close the loopholes used by far too many employers to exploit their employees.

Closing the Loopholes will:

• Criminalise wage theft and penalise employers who purposely steal money from their employees with up to 10 years in prison and $7.8 million in fines.
• Make sure labour-hire workers are paid at least the wages laid out for permanent employees in their enterprise agreement – it’s only fair to existing employees and labour-hire contractors.
• Better support first responders suffering the effects of PTSD by streamlining the workers’ compensation claims process.
• Strengthen discrimination protections for employees who have been, or are being, subjected to domestic and family violence.

As an ex-President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions I will never stop fighting for workers.

You can watch my speech to parliament about this legislation here.