Parliamentarians circle each other over coal casuals in Macquarie Street and Canberra

Both politicians lost their respective motions.

Senator Ayres called yesterday for the Senate to "note" a six-point motion saying that more than 40 per cent of Hunter open-cut workers were on labour hire, mostly as casuals earning 30 per cent to 40 per cent less than permanents. The motion also noted that One Nation had voted with the government in March "entrenching casualisation".

The motion was lost on a division 26 votes to 27 with One Nation abstaining.

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In a related move, federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese used his budget reply speech last night to announce Labor, if elected, would legislate to "criminalise wage theft" after consultation with unions, states and territories and employer groups.

In Macquarie Street, Mr Latham again attacked the 2017 enterprise agreement signed by Mr Drayton that was used by one of the big labour hire firms the union was accusing of underpaying workers.

Labor MLCs including John Graham said Mr Latham was peddling "really old material" full of "baseless allegations" but Liberal Damien Tudehope said the motion had "significant merit".

"The motion is effectively, as the Hon. Mark Latham outlined, exactly what [former NSW Labor MP turned party critic] Rodney Cavalier fought against," Mr Tudehope said.

"When union officials get into bed with employers and they join each other in devising ways and structures for the purposes of taking money, which they either raise by union fees or alternatively by selling enterprise agreements, that is when we are effectively stealing from workers"

Mr Tudehope said it was "a tried and tested model" and named a series of Labor and union figures who had been either convicted or accused of wrongdoing in recent years.

Labor's Adam Searle defended the 2017 agreement as "clearly in the interests of" the mineworkers involved".

"The enterprise agreement, which represents an improvement to the existing wages and conditions, was struck to provide a secure legal basis for workers to receive their working entitlements because the award that covered the work otherwise prohibited casual employment," Mr Searle said.

Liberal Natalie Ward, who said she joined the Liberal Party after dissatisfaction with her own union, said: "Over the past week, a protection racket has popped up to condone the business model of the Labor Party and rogue union officials.

"Members opposite do not want to hear it because they do not like hearing about the misdeeds of their masters."

Mr Latham's motion was lost on division 18 votes to 21, with the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MLC Robert Borsak joining Labor and the Greens in winning the vote.

On Thursday last week, Mr Borsak spoke in an adjournment debate on coalmining casual employment, saying he would introduce legislation to ensure casuals received the same workers' compensation entitlements as full-time workers, and to make 75 per cent direct employment a minimum consent condition for mining approvals.

"Furthermore, there is an inherent conflict between coalminers' insurance and coal health services," Mr Borsak said. "Effectively, the same body that assesses and manage your injuries also assesses your insurance claim. No-one loses if these roles are split, which is exactly what should happen, and what we will be seeking to do through legislation."

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