Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You are certainly correct, Deputy Speaker Mitchell. This is not a motion that I would second. I do not think there has been a motion brought into this House that is a greater distortion of the truth and a greater piece of hypocrisy than I have ever heard in my time in this place. Let us go through the truth and the facts that the member for Herbert conveniently disregards.

This so-called cut to penalty rates only affects five of 122 awards. They are starting with a scare campaign. Here we go. This is nothing but another deceptive scare campaign by Labor members trying to trick the public and scare them, just like their 'Mediscare' campaign. The member for Herbert, of all people, should be apologising in this House to the people of her electorate for tricking them at the last election. Still, they wear that deception as a badge of honour. We are going to talk about penalty rates because the truth exposes what a pack of frauds the Labor Party are on this issue. It is only five out of 122 awards.

What they fail to mention is that the changes made by the Fair Work Commission do not affect workers at Coles, Woolworths, BigW, Target, Kmart, David Jones, McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Red Rooster and Hungry Jacks. And do you know why? It is because their penalty rates have already been ripped off by them by the shop assistants' union. I have before me the EBA for Red Rooster. Guess what it says, Deputy Speaker?

Paragraph 28.3 relates to weekend penalty rates. It says, 'All work performed on a Saturday or on a Sunday during ordinary hours shall be subject to the following penalty rates:' There is an entry for Queensland. Member for Herbert, can you tell me what penalty rates Red Rooster workers in Queensland get? Can you tell me what they would get? Is it 50 per cent? Is it 25 per cent? I will tell you, member for Herbert. It is zero. It is right here. It says, 'No loading applies.' They have already been ripped off by the unions in their penalty rates. And what for? What did they get? I will tell you. I have the KFC national enterprise agreement here. This is what penalty rates have been sold off for. Paragraph 40.2 says:

… the employer undertakes to positively promote union membership by recommending that all employees join the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association.

Paragraph 40.3 says:

All employees, including new employees at the point of recruitment, shall be given an application form to join the Union together with a statement of the employer's policy.

What young person in their first job is going to say, 'No, I am not going to sign that form.' Where does it get them?

Paragraph 41.4 is the killer. It says:

The employer—

that is KFC—

undertakes … to deduct Union membership dues as levied by the Union in accordance with its rules from the pay of employees … Such monies collected will be forwarded to the appropriate … Union …

So what has happened here? Not only have they ripped penalty rates off the workers so that these workers are getting no penalty rates under the union deal, the union get a lifeline into their pay packet to rob their pay. And where does that money ultimately end up? It ends up financing the election campaigns of members of the Labor Party. What a disgrace! What a sham! What a pack of hypocrites you lot are! You come in here and say you are standing up for workers, and all you have done is stand there and rip them off with their penalty rates. What are Labor trying to protect? It is the competitive disadvantage to small business.

Let us take a few examples. A family owned chicken shop pay a worker $29.16 on a Sunday, but KFC, who have been touched up by the unions, pay union members only $21.19. So under the current arrangements that you lot are defending, it is illegal for that family owned business to offer that KFC worker a higher rate of pay. If they say, 'We want to pay you $26 an hour,' that is illegal. Your deals are stopping workers getting more pay. What a disgrace is it to make out that this is somehow compulsory. What a sham!

Many employers who are already paying that higher rate of pay have said that they are happy to continue to do so. One of them is a company called Lush. (Time expired)

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