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

July the 1st is shaping up as Australia's D-Day. It is shaping up as Australia's D-Day because for the first time in a very, very long time we will see wages go backwards for low-income earners who depend on those penalty rates and who depend on those extra shifts that they get on Saturdays and Sundays to increase their wages to supplement the family income to ensure that they pay their bills, get food on the table and do all the other things that we do naturally as families. This is the first time ever that someone's wage has been rolled backwards without a negotiation, without a discussion, without two people sitting at the negotiating table to negotiate, perhaps, different conditions of work in return for penalty rates or lower penalty rates.

It is quite natural for this government not to support the stopping of this taking place on 1 July, and I say so because these are the same people that were the architects of WorkChoices back in 2007. We remember those plans that they had in place to implement them—in fact, they did implement them—and how hurtful they were to the public. The cutting of penalty rates is part of that plan. It is just chipping away at bits and pieces of many, many workers' rights and workers' conditions that have been fought for over generations. Those conditions have been fought for by my parents, my grandparents, your parents, your grandparents and people in the history of Australia who have worked to better workers' rights continuously. This government is standing by on 1 July and allowing this to take place.

It is a national disgrace. It is a disgrace that we are attacking the lowest-paid workers, the lowest-paid people, in this country when, at the same time, we are looking at giving a $65 billion tax cut to the high end of town. As I said, it is a disgrace. The Prime Minister is willing to increase income tax as well for all pay earners earning over $21,000. Have a think. Who earns between $21,000 and $80,000 a year? It is, again, our cleaners, people who work part-time, people who work on assembly lines, people who have those lowest paid jobs and are struggling in our community to pay their bills, to put food on the table and to send their kids to school. They are the people that this government is attacking. They are the people that this government has forgotten about. They are the people that they do not care about, but they do care about the high end of town and giving a $65 billion tax cut to those people. That is their priority.

Why is it their priority? Because the leader, the Prime Minister, is of that ilk. He has come to this place as a former banker, someone that has represented the boardrooms of those banks for many, many years. They are the people that urged him on and put him here in this place. But he was a bit of a progressive, I suppose, before he became Prime Minister. We know that he was running the Republican movement. We know that he supported same-sex marriage. There was a whole range of things. He was considered a bit of a progressive.

There is an interesting legend which has very many similarities to the Prime Minister, and that is the legend of Dr Faust. I do not know if anyone has heard of him, but Dr Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend. He was a very learned man and a scholar who was highly successful. Yet, he was very dissatisfied with his life. This led him to make a pact with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. That is what we have here with the Prime Minister. Someone who had it all but decided to sell his soul to the right-wing conservative arm of his party and throw everything out the window for the godly pleasures of being Prime Minister.

He was willing to sell out hardworking Australians to pander to his rich mates. Even if there was ever any doubt on the government's values and priorities, and on this Prime Minister, then the changes that come into effect on 1 July should dispel that once and for all. The government is penalising low-income workers—vulnerable Australians—on so many fronts. And, as I said, at the same time it is giving a $65 billion tax cut to the top end. That is a tax cut for the top two to three per cent of income earners in Australia, while at the same time— (Time expired)

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