Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

A casual employee under the award gets $24.30 and under Coles they get $27.41. So, it does not matter what rate you go on, or on what day, it is always higher because it is an enterprise bargaining agreement. The workers have worked for and voted on it.

Mr Craig Kelly interjecting—

Yes, you can have the comparison document. That is why most of the workers want this agreement. They want the 2015 agreement because it provides pay rise after pay rise and better conditions overall. That is because it is an enterprise bargaining agreement.

Mr Craig Kelly interjecting—

Because the Fair Work Commission had rocks its head when it made that decision, I do not mind telling you. They turned their back, and you should not be celebrating this, they turned their back on 20 years of enterprise bargaining and they should not have done that. If you want to talk about small business not having access to these rates, let me tell you they did. In South Australia, the SDA did a deal with Business SA. It was a template agreement that was offered to all small retailers. Do you know how many of them took it up? Zero. Because it lifted their labour costs up and it lifted the conditions up.

Mr Craig Kelly interjecting—

No, all they had to do was avail themselves of the opportunity. But they did not, because what the SDA negotiated enterprise bargaining agreements do is lift wages and conditions for workers. That is why workers vote for them and that is why small-business operators avoid them like the plague.

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