Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today on the Turnbull government's attack on hundreds of thousands of Australian workers through their failure to prevent cuts to penalty rates from 1 July this year. I speak for the cleaners, the nurses, the paramedics and the ambulance officers who have spoken to me at the many mobile offices I have conducted across my electorate, who all think they are in the gun next, that they are next on the list of attacks the Turnbull government will perpetrate on the people of Blair. There are about 27,000 families in my electorate, many of whom rely on penalty rates to pay the bills, put fuel in the car and keep food on the table. Without them, people will be much worse off. These are people who have been disgracefully let down by the government's failure to protect penalty rates and the fact that, in this budget, the government thinks it is appropriate to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires and to big business at the same time as not protecting penalty rates.

I want to commend the work done by the SDA, the shoppies union, in Queensland and the Queensland state secretary, Chris Gazenbeek, for the work they are doing to bring this to the attention of people across Queensland. I urge people across Queensland, particularly those in my electorate, to get behind the campaign of the SDA, particularly in respect of protecting penalty rates. To do so, they can go to: www.protectpenaltyrates.org.au. As Chris Gazenbeek has said, hardworking retail and fast-food employees stand to lose between $2,000 and $6,000 every year due to penalty rate cuts, which are fully supported by the Turnbull government. Whether it is a direct cut to take-home pay or a reduction in conditions that underpin EBAs, it represents a pay cut that retail and fast-food workers cannot afford and do not deserve.

The Turnbull government's failure to stand up for working families is evident at every opportunity. It is so evident in the budget we have seen in the last couple of days. They continue to turn their back on Australian workers, who are struggling with record low wages growth. The SDA and the labour movement generally and the Labor Party in particular will support those hardworking people across this area. This is a time when inequality is at a 75-year high, wages growth is the lowest on record and both unemployment and underemployment continue to rise, and still those opposite see fit to undertake a protracted campaign over several years targeting the lowest paid workers and the take-home pay of hardworking Australians. It is simply astonishing and extraordinary.

Over 60 members of the government, including the Prime Minister himself, have called for penalty rates to be either cut or abolished altogether. Some have gone as far as to describe them as a gift to young people. It is simply not good enough. These are the cuts the government wants to undertake—cuts to penalty rates—and the government has the power to stop them. Either they are not listening or they do not care. They do not care about hardworking people in my electorate in Ipswich and the Somerset region. We know that cutting penalty rates will hurt families, but it is also clear that it will hurt the budget, as the budget papers clearly indicate. I support the campaign of the SDA, the labour movement and the Labor Party to protect penalty rates— (Time expired)

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