Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Again and again, the Leader of the Opposition traded away the penalty rates of the members of the AWU in return for deals with employers. Whether it was the Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust, whether it was Chiquita Mushrooms—more low-paid workers—or whether it was Cleanevent, Cirque du Soleil or Cut & Fill Pty Ltd, right across the board, one agreement after another, penalty rates were negotiated away by the Leader of the Opposition. He is as experienced in trading away penalty rates as he is in giving away 457 visas—an Olympic champion; a double gold medallist.

The Fair Work Commission he is almost at the point of declaring enemies of the people—we can see it is getting pretty close to that. But let us just go through them: President Ross, hand-picked by the Leader of the Opposition when he was workplace relations minister, formerly an assistant secretary of the ACTU; Vice President Catanzariti, also hand-picked by the Leader of the Opposition when he was workplace relations minister; Deputy President Asbury, promoted by the Leader of the Opposition when he was workplace relations minister; Commissioner Hampton, appointed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard when she was workplace relations minister; and Commissioner Lee, hand-picked by Chris Evans when he was workplace relations minister, and a former Australian Services Union official. So this is a panel every member of which was there because of a decision by a Labor government. They considered this matter about penalty rates on a reference by the Labor Party. I quote the Leader of the Opposition when he said, as minister:

Under the fair go workplace system Labor put in place, penalty rates in modern awards are set by the independent umpire, Fair Work Australia, after extensive consultations with employer representatives and unions. The tribunal is currently holding a major check-up of the operation of penalty rates and public holidays in modern award rates.

Employers, employees and their representatives are able to appear before the independent umpire and put their views forward. That's a fair system, one that balances the rights of employers to make a profit with the rights of employees to fair treatment.

And, as to the suggestion from the Greens that parliament should intervene, he dismissed that. He said that would be 'playing with fire'. He described the Greens as occupying a 'sideshow position'. And he said, remember:

… what the government has the power to put in, a future government has the power to dismantle. The independent umpire, the system of conciliation and arbitration, has served this nation well for 120 years.

Bill Shorten, doorstop interview, Geelong, 16 May 2016. And 120 years of Labor Party history would have supported him. But now it is abandoned—thrown away, in a desperate political populist move, and of course promoting a monstrous falsehood of the kind for which he is famous: the suggestion that a decision of the Fair Work Commission is a decision of the government. So was it the government's decision to strike the minimum wage at $17.70? Will it be the government's decision to increase it this year? This is absurd. He knows, and Australians know: this is a decision of an independent expert tribunal.

The Fair Work Commission carefully examined the case presented by unions and employers and their representatives, and it concluded, as I said earlier, that they found the evidence from the hospitality sector—that a decrease in penalty rates would result in more jobs, more employment and more opportunities for young people to get some work on the weekend—cogent and convincing and persuasive. And they made exactly the same finding in respect of the evidence of the retail sector. These are the words of the Fair Work Commissioner; these are the words of the man shortly to become the enemy of the people, according to the Labor Party, President Ross; this is what he said about the retail penalty rate awards: 'While these provisions no doubt have some history, they are plainly inconsistent and appear to lack logic and merit.' That was his judgement. That was the Fair Work Commission's judgement. They have come to that conclusion and they have proposed some changes.

To ensure that workers are not worse off in terms of their pay packet, they have set out the mechanism for doing that. And they have described how, when the modern awards came into effect in 2010, they were phased in over five years; they have suggested they could phase these in over a period of at least two years. So they have set out a road map to ensure that workers are not worse off in terms of their pay packet. This is a carefully considered, lengthy examination, doing exactly what the Leader of the Opposition asked them to do. We respect this independent institution. We respect this independent umpire. The Labor Party, for 120 years, used to, but now it does no longer.

The Labor Party is not only threatening the integrity of this industrial relations independent umpire; it is threatening the jobs of every Australian. It has a set of policies, every single one of which is guaranteed to discourage investment and employment. They want to have higher taxes on business, in a competitive world where the Governor of the Reserve Bank himself points out that we need to be competitive in terms of tax. Labor is saying, 'No, it's time to soak business and get them to pay higher taxes.' And what will happen then, when businesses relocate overseas? What will happen when they take their business overseas, when they do not expand in Australia and when they do not move to Australia? That will be the consequence of Labor's populist approach to politics.

And then we see their approach to energy. Fundamental for every business is affordable and reliable energy. Labor have shown us what they do in South Australia—a state which is struggling, with manufacturing industries closing, desperately needing to reindustrialise. It has the least reliable and the most expensive electricity in Australia, courtesy of the Labor Party.

We have also seen their approach to trade—jumping on the protectionist bandwagon. In the last national accounts, we saw record figures for agricultural exports, as our exporters are taking advantage of those big export markets. We have opened them up; Labor would shut them down. We have been able to get greater access for all of our exporters, whether it is cattle, whether it is sugar, whether it is wool or whether it is wheat. We have been able to do that right across the board. Labor opposed those free trade agreements—particularly, and most disgracefully, the China FTA.

As far as company tax is concerned, remember that it is not so long ago that the member for McMahon—who is no longer with us—wrote a book extolling the virtue of reducing company tax and said it was a 'Labor thing to do', citing Paul Keating. Then we had the Leader of the Opposition in this place saying that reducing business taxes increased productivity, increased investment, increased opportunity and increased jobs. He was right then, but he is wrong now, because what he is seeking to do, yet again, is turn Australians against each other, turn workers against business, divide the country, stifle investment and stifle employment—all in his campaign to do anything to secure election to government on the basis of a populist anti-business campaign. He has no principle, no consistency and no integrity. It is a chronicle of hypocrisy posing as a political platform.

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting—

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