Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

This is an amendment to the Fair Work Act and, in particular, it is to do with award modernisation. I reject the reasoning of the Leader of the House because this is an amendment to the Fair Work Act and, in particular, it goes to the award modernisation mechanisms within the Fair Work Act. This is about whether we will have constant reviews of the awards. Indeed, the penalty rates decision arose out of that process. In fact, the decision of the Fair Work Commission in relation to penalty rates arose precisely out of the provisions that are referred to in this bill. For that reason, it is entirely relevant that amendments are made to this bill in relation to penalty rates.

See this speech in context