It is a pleasure to rise and talk on the Wage Theft Amendment Bill 2025. Here in Victoria we are proud to lead this nation on many reforms, but particularly in strengthening protections for workers and ensuring that fair balance between the rights of employees and the responsibilities of employers. For decades Labor governments, both federal and state, have driven reforms that send a really strong message that we are a government that values, respects and protects working people. From pioneering workplace safety laws, making superannuation compulsory, introducing family violence leave, establishing portable long service leave, holding labour hire firms to account, equal opportunity laws – and more recently I was involved in a committee looking at the gaps that we have in existing laws around workplace surveillance and employee privacy ‍– to the working-from-home legislation that we recently announced, we have consistently stood up for fairness, dignity and security in our workplaces.

I really look forward to hearing the government’s response to that inquiry into workplace surveillance. Throughout the inquiry we heard that privacy and surveillance laws have not kept pace with the technology that employers are now using, and we made some recommendations about how to make some reforms in that space, particularly for the introduction of workplace surveillance legislation that would on its own clearly state what is reasonable, necessary and proportionate when employers are watching or surveilling employees in their workplace or while they are undertaking work. It was unfortunate that we did not all agree in that committee, and we saw the other side write a minority report on behalf of employers. ‘Nothing to see here’ was kind of their argument, and I question if they really stand up for workers and working people.

Those reforms that I have listed, both at a federal level and a state level, which we have led, are not just pieces of paper and policies that we can all go and Google. They are actually protections that change and affect real working people. They have kept workers safe, they have ensured that they are being paid what they are owed and they recognise that a fair day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. For context, in particular for this bill, four years ago, in July 2021, we made history here in Victoria. It was at that moment that we clearly stated and very loudly said that if you steal from your workers, you are committing a crime. It was not about catching those who had made a bookkeeping error, it was not about catching those who had made a misunderstanding, but for those committing the deliberate act of withholding or stealing wages, it was then a crime. Under the Wage Theft Act 2020, an employer who deliberately underpays wages or withholds super or cheats employees out of their entitlements faces the full force of the law – fines of up to $1 million for companies and individuals and 10 years behind bars. As I have indicated, that was not about punishing honest mistakes. It was about protecting people from deliberate exploitation and from those who knew exactly what they were doing – they thought they could get away with it, and they were targeting the most vulnerable workers, those who might have been too afraid to speak up or those who believed that no-one would listen to them.

In 2021 we also created the Wage Inspectorate Victoria, a watchdog given powers to investigate, prosecute and enforce not only these new wage theft laws but also the protection of young workers’ long service leave and fair contracting in key industries. Here in 2025, four years on, we can say that we not just talked about it but we actually put it into law and backed it up with that action. As indicated, we knew wage theft was not an accident, it was a systematic problem across our economy.

As has been identified today, now that the federal government has stepped into this space every state and territory has outlawed wage theft following the passage of the federal government’s Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill 2023. That is a major win for working people across our nation, and that has been led from this state here in Victoria.

The key reforms that will happen under this bill are the repeal of wage theft offences and then the renaming of the inspectorate. The bill repeals the wage theft offences and associated record-keeping offences in light of the Commonwealth introducing similar offences intended to cover the field, and as a consequence, the bill repeals the inspectorate-related investigation powers and functions. It renames the principal act and the inspectorate to better reflect a new, revised role. The Wage Inspectorate Victoria will be known as the Workforce Inspectorate Victoria and the Wage Theft Act will be renamed the Workforce Inspectorate Act 2025.

I just want to be clear, though, that even though I have outlined all that, this is not the end of our fight for fairness for our workers, and that inspectorate will continue to do vital work in the field. In contrast, I suppose, to what I am hearing from the other side, this inspectorate has over its time helped workers reclaim more than $1 million of unpaid long service leave entitlements, which is money back in the pockets of working families. It has benefited over 1400 workers and also provided education to businesses and further workers across this state. It was a simple message that we would stand up for working people, and we will continue that in this place. We will never stop fighting to make sure that workers get what they deserve and what they are owed in full, on time and every time.

As indicated, we have undertaken the Wilson review and that review did come with some recommendations. One of those recommendations is part of this bill today. Starting with recommendation 1, that a complaints referral body be set up to receive and refer complaints relating to Victorian government construction sites, this will be established within the workforce inspectorate. We know, and the Premier has clearly stated, that criminal and unlawful behaviour has no place anywhere and particularly in Victoria’s construction industry. We owe it to every honest worker and every law-abiding business to clean up that industry, and we are doing that.

But it is important to remember that the actions of a few do not define the many. There are many unions across this country that embody the very best of our values: they fight for fair pay; they fight for a safe workplace, job security and dignity at work; and they hold employers accountable when workers are underpaid, mistreated or put at risk. They give a voice to people who may be silenced. A good union does not just look after its members; it lifts the standards for the entire workforce. It negotiates in good faith, it acts with integrity and it understands a strong workplace is built on respect between workers and their representatives and employers. The truth is that many of the rights that we take for granted now – the weekend, sick leave and super – would not have been won without our good unions and our representatives. While we will take strong action to deal with corruption, intimidation and unlawful conduct when they do occur, we will also support the rights of workers to organise, to be represented and to be treated with respect.

This bill is a really important bill. This is now across our country. We have led from this state. This will create a single entry point with the powers to receive and refer complaints, a clear one-door entry point for workers to raise issues, and it will assess each matter directly with the most appropriate regulator. Our record has been clear. I have outlined that today. We do not just talk about looking after workers, we deliver on reforms and make them real. We led the nation on this issue of wage theft. We knew wage theft was not an accident but a deliberate act that was breaking the law, and we made it a crime. The Commonwealth are now leading in this space, and we have protections for workers across this country, which is an excellent thing. Victoria leads on many of these issues, and we are very proud to have this bill today.