Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to continue to discuss the hypocrisy of those opposite when it comes to penalty rates. For over 100 years now, rates of pay in this country have been set independent of government. The reason for that was in case you ever had a situation where a populist leader, desperate to do anything to become Prime Minister, turned around and promised a pay increase in an attempt to get votes. Heaven help us that that's exactly where we find ourselves today. The even greater irony is that the independent umpire in its current form was in fact put in place and overseen by the Labor Party and the union movement, post the 2007 election: the Fair Work Commission, which is the independent umpire in all things to do with industrial relations.

The irony doesn't stop and the hypocrisy doesn't stop there. The Leader of the Opposition was one of the key architects of that act, where the four-yearly reviews of modern awards were initiated, the process that came up with the decision that we're debating today. There was hypocrisy again in 2010, when the Leader of the Opposition was the minister responsible, when there was the first decision by the Fair Work Commission to reduce penalty rates in some modern awards. What did we hear from those opposite? Crickets. We heard nothing. Then in 2014, at the end of another four-yearly review, there were more changes to reduce Sunday penalty rates to some restaurant awards. And what did we hear then? We finally heard support for the Fair Work Commission, especially, most loudly, from the member for Gorton, the shadow minister, who stood up and argued that that is how the system works and the Fair Work Commission is the independent umpire, as it should be, as is fit and proper. But the even bigger hypocrisy here, the latest example, is that those opposite today are saying that they will turn around and overrule their own independent umpire, the Fair Work Commission—the one that they constructed.

The bill that we're talking about, the Fair Work Amendment (Restoring Penalty Rates) Bill 2018, does not include changes to enterprise bargaining agreements. But the reality is that the Leader of the Opposition, in his union career pre politics, did exactly what he is rallying against today. In 2006, in an agreement that he oversaw, 780 BigW workers in North Queensland had their Sunday penalty rates cut from 200 per cent to 150 per cent. In another 2006 agreement, again under his stewardship, 129 Target workers in North Queensland had their penalty rates cut from 200 per cent to 150 per cent.

Before the last election, when the member for Maribyrnong, the Leader of the Opposition, was asked by Neil Mitchell on 3AW if he would accept the findings of the independent umpire and the decision about penalty rates that was pending at that stage, he answered yes. Neil Mitchell asked:

You'll accept them?

SHORTEN: Yes

MITCHELL: Even if they reduce Sunday penalty rates?

SHORTEN: Well, I said I'd accept the independent tribunal …

It suited him then; it doesn't suit him now. Why? Because he's in a populist drive for votes. At the same time, as I mentioned, there is the hypocrisy. I ran into a young bloke, Michael, in my electorate working in a major fast-food chain a couple of weekends ago, on a Saturday. I asked him what roster he works. He works six hours on a Saturday and six hours on a Sunday. He is $27 a week worse off because he is employed under an enterprise bargaining agreement that was negotiated by the shop, distributive and allied union, the SDA—the biggest supporter of the Labor Party in terms of both membership and dollars over the last decade—which has actually reduced penalty rates far in excess of what the Fair Work Commission has come up with, after taking hundreds of submissions on the topic across all players in the industry and considering the case on its merits.

Michael is in year 10 in my electorate. You've got predominantly young schoolkids and university students in these major retail chains—multinational in some cases, but national in all cases—that are subject to enterprise bargaining agreements that have deductions that are well in excess of what we are talking about the Fair Work Commission making. It is hypocrisy writ large. Today is just the latest example of that. If the Leader of the Opposition tells you it's raining, I'd advise those in Australia to stick their head outside and have a look.

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