These laws have been a long time coming. Workers around the country have been fighting for the best part of a decade to ensure that a lot of these loopholes are closed, including labour hire workers. At this point, I really want to thank all the workers across Australia, the union delegates, the union members, the union leadership, the ACTU and all other trades and labour councils across the country for the hard work, vision and courage they've been possessed of to ensure that these changes are finally going to be made law. The pendulum has swung too far in one direction. Our government is about getting things back where they should be, to make sure that our country is a fair one for workers.

As a member of the Australian Labor Party, I am absolutely unapologetic of the fact that I stand with workers right across Australia. I urge those opposite to do the same. I've met too many people who have suffered the pain of insecure work. I spoke about my own experience of insecure work in my very first speech in this place. It devastates communities. It's not just about individual lives. When people don't have a secure job, they cannot make that commitment to the local sporting group. They cannot participate in the parents and friends associations. They can't make plans. They can't think of what a good life for them and their families might look like. It holds people back. Making sure that we're taking action here to ensure that labour hire workers are treated the same as the people they work next to every single day in the workplace will go a long way in giving certainty to those people. I'm really proud to stand with them today.

I've met too many workers, particularly young, migrant and women workers, who have experienced wage theft. We talk in this place of the cost-of-living crisis. We hear, frankly, ridiculous MPIs day after day in this place about the cost-of-living crisis. Now, given the opportunity for people to be paid their lawful wages and for consequences to follow when that doesn't happen, those opposite are voting no. We're talking about people who are paid $4 an hour, for goodness sake. We're talking about making that a crime.

Frankly, I can't believe those opposite are interjecting when we're talking about some of the poorest people in this country. We're talking about people who are forced to live in shipping containers in workplaces. We're talking about people who experience wage theft and have been too afraid to come forward and speak about it, because they fear nothing would be done, and who have put up with horrendous things, like sexual assault. I have met these workers. I urge those opposite to speak to those workers too. I do not understand how anyone in good conscience could think of not supporting this legislation before us today.

I really thank those people in the other place who have been constructive, who want to see a better Australia for everyone. When we were elected, we said that it was a better future for everyone; that we would leave no-one behind. The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 goes a long way to making sure that no-one is left behind, that people who work alongside one another are treated the same, and that those who have experienced some of the most horrendous treatment at work and wage theft now have a course to correct that. This will act as a disincentive to employers who seek to do the wrong thing.

What we're talking about here is simply not rewarding bad behaviour. We shouldn't be encouraging employers to do these things. There are plenty of employers around the country who do the right thing every day. We're making a criminal offence of industrial manslaughter. I would have thought everyone in this place would think that any worker who goes to work should come home safely and alive, and that if that doesn't happen, if their employer does not have a sufficiently safe workplace for people, then that should be a crime. I simply am astounded that, given this opportunity to build better workplaces, safer workplaces and stronger communities, those opposite have yet again said no. As I said at the outset, I thank every worker across Australia who, for many, many years, has been working hard to this point. I am proud to stand with them today and every day.