I would like to speak tonight about the recent tragic deaths and serious injuries of food delivery workers in Sydney and across the country. We have seen a tragedy unfolding on our streets over the last few months. At least five delivery riders have been killed on the roads since the end of September. Four of those deaths were in Sydney.

The Greens have a very strong position that the Senate should insist on its amendments to this Economic Recovery Package (JobMaker Hiring Credit) Amendment Bill 2020. We've been here for the last two days debating the JobMaker hiring credit scheme which, in the legislation, is no scheme at all. There have been members who have stood up—many members over the last two days—and spoken about the bill. And many on this side have expressed their deep concerns about the bill and the implications of the bill.

The Greens support this motion. With hundreds of thousands of jobs lost and more than a million people unemployed and already stagnant wages, it's clear that we need massive investment in secure, sustainable and rewarding jobs if we are to rebuild after this crisis into a just society. This can't be done without generational investment in education and training to equip people in communities with the skills that they need. Whether you're just leaving school, you're between jobs in a recession or you're looking to retrain, you have the right to a world-class education.

The Greens support this motion and we express our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of Dede Fredy and Xiaojun Chen. They died at work in a gig economy, which overwhelmingly means insecure work, low pay and utterly diminished industrial rights for workers. Three-quarters of delivery riders earn below the minimum wage. Many gig economy workers are migrants and on temporary visas and are vulnerable to exploitation and wage theft. Our employment laws don't protect workers.

Senator Patrick's amendments

As I said in my speech in the second reading debate, the Economic Recovery Package (JobMaker Hiring Credit) Amendment Bill 2020 grants very broad powers to the minister to basically hand out $4 billion of public money to businesses, and it doesn't do much else. This bill doesn't actually establish the JobMaker hiring credit scheme. It doesn't provide a single detail about the scheme. There's nothing about eligibility criteria or anything else for that matter.

I rise on behalf of the Greens to speak on the Economic Recovery Package (JobMaker Hiring Credit) Amendment Bill 2020. Everyone has a right to a liveable income and a right to a safe, secure and meaningful job that pays them decent wages to live a good life. Even before the pandemic, we should have been really concerned about unemployment in Australia. In March 2020, the national unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent and was even higher for young people, at 11.6 per cent. The underemployment crisis has been one which has been hidden for far too long.

I move:

Omit subparagraph (b)(ii) and add, at the end of the amendment:

(c) Economic Recovery Package (JobMaker Hiring Credit) Amendment Bill 2020, the provisions of the bill be referred immediately to the Economics Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 6 November 2020.

Question agreed to.

HANSARD LINK

I move:

That Part 3 of Schedule 1 of the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Amendment Rules (No. 8) 2020, made under the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Act 2020, be disallowed [F2020L01165].

The government don't care about workers. They don't care about the economy. They don't care about protecting the planet for future generations. Their vision for the future is one of low wages, of job insecurity, and of profits over people. They want to use the COVID-19 crisis to enrich their corporate donors and fight culture wars, and not much else. Rather than creating the jobs of the future, they are pushing a so-called 'gas-fired recovery'—a totally backwards idea, brought to you by the government's mates in the gas industry.

I seek leave to move a motion relating to the consideration of the Fair Work Amendment (COVID-19) Bill 2010, as circulated in the chamber.

Leave not granted.

Senator FARUQI: Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in the name of Senator Waters, I move: