Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given the issue I am about to address, it is interesting that I am following a member of the Labor Party who has been very influential in the trade union movement, because this issue, at its heart, goes to the fact that the Labor Party is beholden to the trade union movement. The member for Maribyrnong has not waited to listen, unfortunately, because he might have been informed if he had.

The very important issue I would like to address today is award modernisation. When the award modernisation process was being discussed, the Prime Minister made a promise to all Australians, including rural and regional Australians, those working, high school students and small business owners. The Prime Minister promised Australia a fair work system in which the tribunal had the power to be flexible when needed to ensure that no worker was worse off under the new award system.

Following a second decision by the full bench of Fair Work Australia on the minimum hours needed to work, students in Avoca, Hamilton, Warrnambool and Terang, towns in my electorate of Wannon, seem to have been excluded from this promise. Leticia Harrison, Matthew Spencer, Jack Thompson and Jordan Tressider, who all lost work due to changes in the retail award minimum shift—from two to three hours—are still confused as to why. In an electorate like Wannon, which covers 14.25 per cent of Victoria, towns like Avoca, Hamilton, Warrnambool and Terang are the norm. So it is a fair bet that students in similar towns, which number well over 50 in my electorate, are facing the same predicament under these award changes.

There are generally two options for students seeking work: retail or hospitality. Hospitality poses problems for school students, because they must be 18 years old to serve alcohol, rendering them inappropriate for small hospitality businesses. That leaves retail as the primary option. In the country, retail businesses usually close at 5.30 pm on a weeknight and 1 pm on a Saturday. On Sundays they are usually closed as owner-operators make time for their own families. So when and where can a student living in rural or regional Victoria now work for a three-hour block? Where can they get the opportunity to gain experience, responsibility and learn the value of a hard-earned dollar?

No small business owner wants to hire someone for a period in which they do not work, and nor would a student want to be paid for work they did not do. Also, for a family owned and operated business, where every dollar counts, owners cannot be blamed for thinking about their bottom line. So, when students can only work for 1½ or two hours before or after school, why did Fair Work Australia rule against changing the minimum shifts in the retail award? The full bench of Fair Work Australia has stated that time travelled to and from work is a major consideration in rejecting calls for changes in the retail award. Let us consider why country students could be excluded from such consideration. Often parents are travelling to or from a town where the student goes to school, so they can get a ride to and from school. Often the students live in a town, so they can walk to or from the business employing them. In other cases, if they live on the outskirts of town, they might be able to make their own way there. None of these scenarios justifies the ruling by Fair Work Australia to keep the minimum shift in the retail award at three hours for students living in country Victoria.

Fair Work Australia also ruled that employing students for two hours would remove employment for part-time workers. Why are part-time workers more important than students looking for work? I will continue on this issue until we get change in this area. There is no justification for the current rulings by Fair Work Australia. I call on the Prime Minister to honour her word to intervene and get the relevant minister to make a ministerial directive in this area so that students in my electorate and across Victoria can get back to work.