Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, no. We had these provisions in the retail industry award in South Australia and they operated perfectly well. They were in the retail award, because in the old days there used to be trading hours acts across the country in states, which had six o'clock closing—and sometimes 5:30 closing. Often these clauses were necessary so that schoolchildren could work. It is less of a problem now in the city, because of course Coles and Woolies and most of the retailers trade well into the evening, and so there is not the need for very short engagements.

I take the members point that country towns might be the exception to this. We would not want to stop young people from the country being able to work these hours. All these sentiments that the member said about young people being able to work, get a bit of pocket money, be able to save a bit of money for cars and that sort of thing are all perfectly sensible. But of course what he misses out is that, as part of the Fair Work laws, there have to be awards set. In the process of setting these awards, there are contests between unions and employer associations about things like minimum engagement.

The Labor government and I are happy to support and protect three-hour minimum engagements for casuals. What the retailers' association were doing in this case is using these children as a graphic example of a way in which they could undermine minimum engagements. What they are seeking to do with this early morning engagement is find a relatively small number of people who are doing a particular brand of this work—in this case delivering newspapers—and use it to undermine the overall concept of three-hour minimum engagements. We all know what the retailers want. They want a situation where they can pull somebody in for work, have them work for an hour and send them home. That is what retailers want. That is their wish list. That is what the retailers association wants, and I have seen it happen. I have seen a great many retailers and fast food organisations try it on, both requesting it in awards and implementing it in their shops until unions and other independent associations come around and enforce the rules. We know that is what they want and we know that is what their representatives in this parliament want. What this motion from the member represents is a stalking horse to reintroduce elements of Work Choices that undermine things like minimum engagements, overtime and penalty rates. That is what the opposition wants—and that is who you are, not the government. You have to wait for the election before you—

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