Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a shame that the member for Petrie didn't take the opportunity to get on the speaking list. In fact, no-one in the government has put their name on this speaking list to talk about this very, very important subject. I follow in the member for Oxley's footsteps to add my support to the member for Braddon's motion. The retail trades industry is the second largest employment category in Australia. It employs 1.2 million people, or one in nine Australians. If you did the maths here in this chamber, that would be almost two of us. Fifty-two per cent of those workers in that industry have no post-school qualification. When it comes to my electorate of Lindsay, under the 2011 census there were over 12,000 people employed under the retail trades award. Now, that was under the 2011 census. Unfortunately, because of the absolute stuff-up of the census, we don't have a new figure.

The penalty rate cuts are just another milestone in this government's cruel attempts to hurt workers. These people need penalty rates to make ends meet. Every cent counts for most people in my community and most of the households around this country. The government has effectively delivered a $77 a week pay cut. As the member for Oxley said, something like this has not been seen since the Great Depression. For the government this is a business decision; but for most people in my electorate this decision is personal. Once again, the government put the low-paid workers in the firing line—people in our country who can least afford it. Pay and conditions aren't supposed to go backwards. Twelve thousand people in my community work in industries affected by the cuts—those in retail, food and hospitality.

What's even more worrying, as the member for Braddon pointed out, is that women will bear the brunt of these devastating cuts. Member for Petrie, where are you on this? More than 70 per cent of part-time workers are women. Women are most likely to be working on weekends and covering public holiday shifts. Cutting the pay of these workers in these industries is the worst thing they can do to widen the gender pay gap, which the government talks so much about wanting to close. We know when local workers have less money to spend that that hurts our local economy as well. This will affect small businesses. Forty-eight million dollars a year will not be spent in local retail shops and restaurants over the next year.

The Turnbull government has absolutely no idea about how things are for ordinary people. They just keep looking out for the big end of town and trust it will just trickle down. Well, I can tell you, Deputy Speaker, that is not the plan for most of the businesses in my electorate. Last week, I met with a group of hairdressers, all female—females, you know the other half of the country that exists!—and all aged from 20 to 40 years of age. They all work long hours, they stand on their feet, they deal with chemicals, and they have to go through a rigorous apprenticeship and training course to become our lowest-paid tradespeople. They are deeply concerned, and they're concerned because their penalty rates make a difference to how they live. After they go through the rigorous training to become a fully qualified hairdresser, they are still the lowest-paid tradespeople. They are going to face a pay cut as a result of this government. They are worried about how they will put fuel into their car, how they will get themselves to and from work and how they will manage their already very responsible spending habits.

This is a government which would rather see big business with more money in a trickle-down economy and millionaire tax cuts than hardworking hairdressers with penalty rates. This is the real world, Mr Turnbull, and these are real people you are affecting, facing a—

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