Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Kelly, I invite you to Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island, off the coast of Townsville, is the jewel in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It is truly the most wonderful place in the world. As you board the ferry and go across to Magnetic Island, you feel your blood pressure lower. It is the most relaxing part of the world. You can go across there and do all sorts of things. You can ride your pushbike, you can go topless in a motor car—the car, not the person, has no top; they call it Tropical Topless and Classic Moke Car Rentals—you can hop on a little moped and go around, and you can go to Alma Bay, Horseshoe Bay, Geoffrey Bay, anywhere you want. But you have to be careful when you go across on a Saturday or Sunday, because, the way the industry is at the moment, when you are in a tourist destination where the disposable income is such, you are completely at the mercy of people hopping onto a ferry to come across to Magnetic Island. You must have your wages set and you must have your place staffed before the weekend comes up. If there is the slightest whiff that it might be it rainy or blowing a gale and rough on the water, then the number of people going across to Magnetic Island will drop. That means that the cafes, restaurants and bars will have fewer people, and you might be paying $65 an hour for a waitress in a coffee shop there to stand around and serve no-one. It means you lose. It means the business loses.

What we are seeing in Townsville is that, quite often when people go across to Magnetic Island, the places are already shut—they have made a decision not to open. That then becomes self-fulfilling prophecy. Why would you go across to Magnetic Island when the chances are nothing is going to be open? It becomes a snowball effect of how business operates on Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island is a tremendous place to go. Magnetic Island is a wonderful place to be. The food over there is second to none. The service over there is second to none. But what happens if there is no-one there? What happens if you are standing around and no-one is coming in to buy anything? The owner of that business is paying out $65 an hour per person for people to stand there and do nothing. No-one can survive doing that. So we are seeing places not open. That is an extreme example, but you are seeing it again and again across the country, where places choose not to open.

A couple of years ago I was at the Avenues Tavern in Kirwan, and I was talking to the publican there. He was having a chip at me. He said that the previous Australia Day, when everyone was loading up for home and making sure they were all organised for the day, he had two blokes in the bottle shop and, because Australia Day was on a Sunday, they were getting paid $70 an hour. He said he sold about three cartons of beer the entire day. He said, 'What are you going to do about it? What is this government going to do about it?' I said, 'I'm going to give you my resume—I'll do it for you; I'll do the full 12 hours next time we're there!' If you are standing around doing nothing and you are standing around not making any money, the business goes down the gurgler. You cannot survive. So what has to happen? You either shut the business and miss out completely or it has to be addressed.

I do not have a problem with anyone getting penalty rates. I do have an issue with the example the member for Moreton was talking about, of someone who can only work on weekends—that is the only time that is available to him, when it is convenient for him to work. Why is his time worth twice as much as the time of a working mum who has got two kids at school and is only available to work during school hours Monday to Friday? Why is the time of Ben who lives in the Moreton electorate worth twice as much—to work when he wants to work—as the time of a mum to work on a Wednesday when she wants to work? Why is that? How is that fair to the mum on the Wednesday? Can anyone explain it to me?

And can we please on the other side there stop talking about fireys, ambos, police, paramedics, nurses—all those people who are essential services, who are state employees? These are two separate debates. There is no way in the world you can frame a debate around cutting the rates for nurses or anything like that, because there is no market to call on when people need them. No-one in their right mind would think about cutting the pay rates, penalty rates and allowances for nurses and other people in those front-line services, and neither should they. For those on the other side to say that is complete and utterly disingenuous.

Debate adjourned.

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