Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Broadmeadows electorate

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (14:41): (5958) My constituency question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations and Treasurer. What action is the Andrews government taking to protect the rights of gig economy workers? This is critical in Broadmeadows, where we have unemployment and the prevalence of insecure work, and the Broadmeadows Revitalisation Board 4.0 is addressing this with a coordinated strategy between the three tiers of government, business and civil society.

Recently the Treasurer released the Labor government’s response to an inquiry into the Victorian on-demand workforce, including $5 million in support funding delivered as part of the Victorian budget 2021–22. Funding will help work begin immediately on implementing the government’s response to recommendations, including setting principle-based standards to provide fairer conditions for on-demand workers to ensure platforms operate transparently. Too often gig economy workers have found themselves in a situation that looks and feels like they are in an employment relationship, but the mechanisms to determine their status, such as courts and tribunals, are often slow, costly and inaccessible.