Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Absolutely appalling! But, every time rates go up, every time the minimum wage goes up, somebody at the lower end loses their job, and I have always been annoyed that the union movement did not care about that. Do I want to support low-paid workers? Absolutely, I do. But I also do not want them taken out of the market because the employer cannot justify the minimum wage in their case. I believe, if the minimum wage were lower, the government could top it up with benefits for families, for employers and for low-paid employees, as we already do through family tax benefits and other payments for what I call the working poor. It is more important for me that they have a job.

I am not against a nurse who chooses to work on the weekends—Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights—and gets a very heavy penalty rate for that. I am totally supportive of that because it is the choice of that person and the employer for them work on those difficult nights—probably their busiest nights sometimes, as far as casualty goes. They get more money for doing that, and they choose to do that, rather than working through the week, because it suits them to work on the weekends, when their husband or partner—or whatever you have got to call it these days—is at home. They choose to work on the weekends and they choose to work nights. They provide a magnificent, amazing, valuable service for every one of us that needs their services, and they provide it 24/7. Because of my own experience with ageing parents and other issues, I know that, yes, we do need them in the middle of the night sometimes—and, yes, we have received, as a family, magnificent support from Casey Hospital and the services around Casey Hospital when in need. And the private hospital of St John of God at Berwick does magnificent work.

I dare say they have rules and regulations. I noted the importance of occupational health and safety when I went and visited the Bonlac—or Fonterra, it is called now—milk factory at Darnum. In our visit, they explained to us the occupational health and safety rules that we would have to adhere to, just on a visit in a suit—we were not gearing up and going into wet areas. Even to walk down the stairs from the office, we were told, 'You will hold the rail on the way down the stairs.' I was thinking, 'They're taking this occupational health and safety to extremes here.' No. They have had experience whereby they know they need these standards of occupational health and safety in that factory. Who is it for? It is for the benefit of the workers in that factory—no other reason. It is not for the health and wellbeing of the factory and its operators or Fonterra, the international operator; it is for the health and wellbeing of the workers in that factory.

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