Deputy Greens Leader and spokesperson on Finance, Employment and Workplace Relations Adam Bandt MP today responded to Tony Abbott’s claims that we can’t afford to increase wages of our public servants in line with inflation.

“Tony Abbott says we can’t afford for public servants’ wages to keep pace with increases in the cost of living. This would see cuts to their real wages in coming years,” said Mr Bandt.

Greens Deputy Leader and Workplace Relations Spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today said the government’s new attempts to regulate workplace negotiations revealed them as freedom of choice hypocrites.

“On the one hand, the government says that they have no role in telling industry what to do and people should bargain as they see fit, while on the other, they want to dictate what’s said in every workplace negotiation,” said Mr Bandt.

“This is a clear attempt to stop people bargaining for fair wage rises when their employers make high profits.”

Greens Deputy Leader and Workplace Relations spokesperson, Adam Bandt MP, and Transport spokesperson, Senator Janet Rice, have condemned Qantas and the Liberals for betraying Tasmanian jobseekers.

"Qantas and the Liberals have betrayed jobseekers in Tasmania," said Mr Bandt. "When it was closing its Brisbane and Melbourne call centres, Qantas sought to reassure the public that it would not send its mainland jobs offshore.

Responding to reports that the Government intends to allow employers to pay skilled migrants less than local workers, Deputy Greens Leader and Workplace Relations spokesperson, Adam Bandt MP, said that Tony Abbott is undercutting local workers.

“That stench coming from Canberra is Work Choices rising from the dead,” said Mr Bandt.

“First the Government cuts part of Australia out of the mainland migration zone and now they’re excising parts of the country from our labour laws.

Deputy Greens Leader and Industry spokesperson Adam Bandt MP, and the Greens Transport spokesperson Senator Janet Rice, today condemned Tony Abbott for walking away from Qantas in its hour of need and helping bring about the largest loss in Australia’s aviation history.

The Greens have challenged the Abbott government to act to save Qantas and its local workers, after the national carrier posted a record $2.8 billion loss.

“The Government is set to give Gina Rinehart her wish and exclude the Northern Territory from national labour laws that protect people’s rights at work,” said acting Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP.

“Put yourself in the shoes of a young jobseeker in the Northern Territory, where about one in nine are without a job.

“Northern Territory’s young job seekers will be forced to compete with workers bought in from overseas who don’t have to comply with Australian labour laws and who can work for half the wages.

Greens Deputy Leader and Workplace Relations spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today announced that the Greens will block an attempt by Tony Abbott to curtail employment rights, by moving to disallow the Fair Work Amendment (Protected Industrial Action) Regulation 2014. The regulation weakens employees' rights to bargain, especially in Western Australia.

Deputy Greens Leader and Finance spokesperson Adam Bandt MP said that Australians are working only 2 days a year to fund unemployment benefits but nearly 10 days a year to pay for other forms of ‘welfare for the wealthier’.

“Last week, Joe Hockey tried to pit working Australians against those who need help, saying that the average working Australian works a month every year to fund the welfare of others,” said Mr Bandt.

Greens Deputy Leader Adam Bandt today said that workers and their families should prepare for a Government-backed assault on penalty rates. 

“Australians need to get ready for a Government-led attack on the wages and conditions of people who work unsociable hours,” said Mr Bandt.  

“The same Government that is forcing chaplains into schools at a cost of millions of dollars is saying that there’s nothing special about working on a Sunday.