Tanya Plibersek says Labor will stamp out ‘casualisation’ putting women at risk

Labor has pledged to roll back escalating worker casualisation and insecure work contracts that leave vulnerable woman further at risk.

Sleeping in a car seems out of place in Queensland’s climate of economic prosperity, but for some Mackay women confronting domestic violence and trapped in insecure work arrangements, it’s a brutal reality.

Federal Labor’s Women and Education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek, in a visit to the Mackay Women’s Centre, said a Labor government would move to fix these “unacceptable” conditions.

“Australian women don’t want special treatment, they just want equality,” she said.

“They want to be safe in their homes and on the streets and in our communities and they want a decent job with decent pay and conditions.”

Ms Plibersek said Labor would introduce 10 days of paid domestic violence leave to give women more economic security.

“Being able to keep your job, keep your connection to the workforce, keep an income of your own, is really critical to a woman’s safety when she is leaving a violent relationship,” she said.

Mackay Women's Centre executive director Linda-Ann Northey (left) met with Tanya Plibersek (right) and Dawson Labor candidate Shane Hamilton (centre) to discuss the work of her organisation.

Ms Plibersek also said Labor would roll back what it considers escalating employment casualisation and its flow-on effects to women.

“We want the Fair Work Commission, the independent umpire, to consider job security when it is making decisions about workplaces,” she said.

“We heard from one woman who had been a casual in the same job for 10 years.

“Now that’s not casual work, that is permanent work with an employer who doesn’t want to offer holidays and other things that would make the job more secure.

“It is really important that we focus on these issues of violence against women and their children.

“It’s also really important that we focus on economic security and independence.”

Ms Plibersek spruiked Labor’s Same Job, Same Pay policy, designed to reduce casualisation and wage exploitation of casual workers, as the cornerstone of the party’s industrial relations policy going into the 2022 election.

Mackay Women’s Centre executive director Linda-Ann Northey said there was a connection between unstable work arrangements and women who present to the facility.

“It’s very hard, if they’re trying to leave a domestic violence relationship that is really unsafe for them and they don’t have secure employment,” she said.

“They can’t get a place to go to, they can’t get rent, they don’t have enough savings, they don’t have something stable and secure to help them form a foundation.

“And unfortunately there’s way too many women in that situation.”

Ms Northey said she would like to see more women given the opportunity to move from casual contracts to permanent part-time positions.