Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the tragedy of the penalty rates vote in this chamber and the role of the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources and his tainted vote in that process—and he is supposedly a voice for rural Australia. Let me tell this chamber that surveys show that 60 per cent of the people of Eden-Monaro demand that those penalty rates be protected. That's a country voice that he chose to ignore. The McKell Institute highlighted the effect of that cut on rural and regional Australia when they said that the retail and hospitality sectors account for 18 per cent of rural workers. As such, any reform to penalty rates would have a particularly severe impact on rural and regional areas. They went on to say that retail trade and hospitality workers in rural and regional areas are the lowest paid in any industry. They said:

In practice, cuts to penalty rates would reduce the income of a group of workers who is already experiencing the lowest income in rural Australia. This would result in a commensurate reduction in the disposable income of those workers, leaving less money available for spending on local goods and services.

And here's this man—maybe in New Zealand you don't get the expanse of countryside we have in Australia. Maybe he was too focused on getting his All Blacks jersey, rather than defending the interests of rural and regional Australian workers, who are suffering because they have now had their penalty rates cut. They can't put food on the table. They are struggling to have a roof over their head. You need to get out there and talk to people in the country and find out what their struggles are.

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