Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The current Prime Minister's language in regard to penalty rates has been a little bit more careful than his predecessor's, who basically said that workers can like it or lump it. If they do not want to work on weekends they do not have to, even though in many cases people on low wages depend on penalty rates for 30 per cent of their income. However, last week on 3AW the normally voluble Prime Minister was thoroughly lost for words when the interviewer actually asked him what he meant when he said that workers could get compensation for the loss of penalty rates. Of course, it was not the only bad time he had last week: the Liberal Party state council was not too good, either!

Essentially, we have a situation where people's lives in the community, such as sporting opportunities, driving people around and being carers, are being undermined by the spread of hours on the weekend. There should be compensation to people for this. A government that has accomplished 14.5 per cent underemployment and unemployment, which means there are 800,000 people out of work in this country, should be focused on solutions to that.

The Prime Minister cannot give any fundamental statistical evidence for the growth of jobs that will flow from the reduction of other people's wages on weekends. We have not heard one of them come forward with statistical evidence to establish this. It is just pie-in-the-sky talk to justify the ripping off of people's conditions.

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