Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I rise to speak on the motion about the importance of penalty rates to Australian workers and their families. I support the member for Wakefield's motion as the son of a nurse and the partner of a former child protection worker who did shift work, including night work and a lot of weekend work. Now she is a lawyer, so I am the only one in my household who works weekends. I, like all of my colleagues in the Australian Labor Party, including the shadow minister beside me, will always support decent jobs with decent pay, decent rights and decent conditions, as do all unions. Unions were formed to look after workers. At the moment, whenever members of the coalition talk about penalty rates, they are sadly only talking about cutting these rates. Penalty rates compensate people for the time they miss out with their families when they have to work on weekends, nights or public holidays. I remember many, many Christmases where my mum or my wife was not able to attend because they were out serving their community. Labor knows that a cut to penalty rates is a cut to pay. It means workers and the families of the 4.5 million Australians who rely on penalty rates will be worse off.

At a time when Australia is experiencing the lowest wage growth in 25 years, it is astounding that the Abbott-Turnbull governments have even considered cutting the incomes of Australian workers. I notice that Minister Cormann sporadically makes this point and even occasionally seems to believe this point. We now have a Prime Minister who has very little understanding of or empathy towards families who struggle to make ends meet. We need a Prime Minister who understands that penalty rates are crucial in some households. That is why the Prime Minister continues to turn a blind eye to things like tax avoidance by some of this country's biggest companies while simultaneously presiding over the death of the traditional weekend and the associated penalty rates for everyday Australians. Too often recently, the Australian economic debate has boiled down to a call to slash penalty rates and remove important employee protections, and we have seen that the government of Prime Minister Turnbull has rewarded people that have called for cuts to penalty rates by appointing them to government positions.

Currently working under these provisions are nurses, police and emergency service workers. Reports have shown that a cut in Sunday penalty rates could potentially cost young nurses and midwives $2,000 a year at a minimum. For those with more experience, it would be many thousands more. Our nurses, our police and our emergency service providers have one of the most important and sometimes, sadly, one of the most dangerous jobs: to deliver care or protection to people who at any time may be some of the most vulnerable members of our community. It is only fair that these workers are fairly compensated for the work they do at unsociable hours and on weekends and public holidays, when they leave their families to care for others. To even suggest that such workers would lose their penalty rates is disrespectful and should be condemned.

The government may intend the attack on penalty rates to exclude nurses, police, firefighters or ambulance officers, but the idea that in their place retail, hospitality, manufacturing, services, tourism and transport workers should have this pay cut is outrageous. Working- and middle-class families are already struggling to keep their heads above water. I know of thousands of people in my electorate who rely on weekend penalty rates to simply make ends meet, and this is a vote changer topic from what I can tell from the street stalls I did on the weekend.

Penalty rates for these industries are not a luxury, and rarely are they used to generate per-capita disposable income; they are instead what puts food on the table and petrol in the car for millions of Australian families. For example, take Ben, a university student from the bush living in my electorate of Moreton. I particularly ask the National Party to take note of this, because, like so many people moving to Brisbane from the country to attend university, he studies full time and lives in a share house with friends, but, in order to pay for rent, food, household amenities and university supplies, Ben works in the retail sector and, due to university commitments, has no other option than working on the weekends. So a reduction or removal of weekend penalty rates will considerably damage Ben's living arrangements and those of millions of other Australians, particularly those brighter kids from the bush that are trying to improve their circumstances. The reality is that weekend work is not just for emergency service workers; it is also for kids from the bush like Ben. For many workers in retail, hospitality, manufacturing, services, tourism and transport, weekend work is not a choice; it is unavoidable and vitally important for their families' future, and those industries depend on their labour and the Labor Party to protect their rights. (Time expired)

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