Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a government that is absolutely committed to cutting penalty rates and to cutting workers' pay packets. This is a government that is unfair and so out of touch. The fact is that under this Prime Minister, on 1 July, while millionaires get a tax cut of more $16,000, on the very next day, on Sunday, 2 July, nearly 700,000 workers will have their penalty rates cut. This really shows where this government's priorities are. It shows how harsh and cruel their choices are. These penalty rates cuts will be devastating throughout the nation, but they will especially hit hard in regional and rural areas. It will hit workers who rely on penalty rates to pay their bills and to put food on the table. It will also hurt local economies as there will be less money spent as workers will have their take-home pay slashed.

The penalty rate cuts that will hurt Australian workers on 1 July can be stopped in this place today. We on this side want to stop those cuts; those on the other side don't want to stop the cuts to penalty rates. They own these cuts and they will be responsible for them, and in the regions it is the Nationals who will be held responsible for the cuts to penalty rates, because yesterday we saw all the Liberal and Nationals members in the Turnbull government voting to support cutting penalty rates. This is despite Labor handing the government an opportunity to stop the cuts to penalty rates by supporting the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take-Home Pay) Bill 2017. They refused to support it—all of them. They refused to support the workers in their communities. Only Labor will defend penalty rates and only Labor will defend regional and rural communities.

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