Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We on this side of the House believe it is our absolute duty to protect this country's most vulnerable people. These include people on the lowest wages, people whose employment is precarious, people working under casual contracts, people working on weekends, people working part time and people who are underemployed. They are some of the lowest paid workers in this country. We on this side of the House see it as our duty to ensure that we put in fair legislation that protects these people so that they can live a dignified life.

Those on the opposite side, as we have just heard, are washing their hands of any assistance to these people. We have just heard the previous speaker talk about how this will create more employment. By cutting people's wages, you may create more employment. We could halve their wages and create more employment. We could pay them a plate of food once a week, if you like, and that would create more employment. But to cut people's wages is the most simplistic way that you can create work. I would really like to see the figures after six months and see if one single job has been created. People who give up their weekends, their family time and the things that others take for granted should be compensated for it. There is no other way about it. When you leave your family on a Sunday because you have to go and work, you should be compensated for it—that is only fair. This government obviously does not think that is fair.

This is the first time in the history of Australia where we have seen a cut in wages—in other words, wages going backwards. I am sure that the intention of the Fair Work Commission, when it was set up, was not to cut people's wages; it was there to intervene, look at different situations and perhaps to be an umpire and come up with some findings. It was never the intention of anyone who was helping set up that Fair Work Commission for it to one day cut people's wages, but that is what it has done—without any negotiations, without any discussions and without any enterprise bargaining agreement being put into place that perhaps would give increased hourly rates in return for some cut in penalty rates. There was no negotiation; it was just a straight out cut, which will hurt people. We on this side oppose it.

There is an opportunity, though, for the government—that opportunity is here before us today in legislation put forward by the Leader of the Opposition. That opportunity for the government is to support the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take Home Pay) Bill 2017 and ensure that we put in a mechanism to protect people's wages so that they do not get a pay cut but continue to be able to earn enough money to pay their bills and put food on the table when they leave their families and serve us on weekends and after hours. Firstly, this bill would stop retail and hospitality workers' wages being cut as a result of the decision handed down, as we know, by the Fair Work Commission. Secondly, it would stop the Fair Work Commission cutting award wages and penalty rates in other industries, by constraining the discretion of the commission. That is why this bill is so important.

Wage growth in this country is at record lows—the ABS figure is 1.9 per cent. This is the lowest wage growth since 1990s, when the ABS began tracking it, but estimates are that it is likely to be the slowest rate of pay rise since the last recession. So what we have here is a government that keeps banging on about jobs and growth and yet is willing to stand back and allow approximately 700,000 of our lowest paid workers to cop, on average, a $77 a week wage cut. This will hurt people. The McKell report into penalty rates estimates that workers in South Australian rural communities could lose up to $66.2 million per annum with a partial abolition of penalty rates in the retail and hospitality sectors. In my electorate of Hindmarsh, we recently held a meeting of Labor's Australian jobs taskforce to hear about the devastating impacts that penalty rate cuts could have on low-paid workers in my electorate. Figures show that there over 12,586 people—or one in six workers—in my electorate work in the retail, pharmacy, food and accommodation industries, and these people will be hurt. (Time expired)

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