Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Laetitia Richardson works in a cafe and is paid an award wage. She is a single mum and sole provider for a 12-year-old daughter. She has missed birthdays, Christmas, school concerts, dance recitals and netball games, but says, 'By working and missing some things, I can afford the dance lesson once a week, the netball fees and costs. I can afford fresh fruit and vegetables instead of frozen. Take away penalty rates, and those little extras are gone.' What exactly is the Prime Minister's plan for Laetitia's penalty rates?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member did not mention whether Laetitia was a member of his union. It seems unlikely, given her occupation, that she would be in the CFMEU. I remind the honourable member that he has identified that provisions, including penalty rates, can be looked at in the context of industrial agreements.

Ms Chesters interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bendigo will leave under 94(a).

The member for Bendigo then left the chamber.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The simple fact of life which the honourable member overlooks in his efforts to conjure up some kind of scare campaign is that, firstly, penalty rates are a matter for the Fair Work Commission; and, secondly, the union movement—the industrial wing of the labour movement—regularly negotiates changes to award penalty rates as part of industrial agreements. One assumes that that is done because it is felt that it is, overall, a better deal for the employees and, presumably, for the employers. So the government has no plans to change Laetitia's penalty rates. There are no plans at all. But the flexibility in penalty rates is something that is happening in the marketplace, it is something that the Fair Work Commission has certainly effected in some cases in the past and it is something that practically every member—I can go on. I mentioned the member for Gorton; what about the member for Fraser? When asked whether there was any room for restructuring penalty rates, he said, 'I am always up for an evidence-based discussion.'

I can give another example. McDonald's employees are not entitled to penalty rates for working on weekends, but their enterprise agreements offer higher base rates of pay. The adult entry-level staff members who cook and serve meals have a minimum weekly award wage of $772.51 in New South Wales, compared to $721.50 under the fast food industry award, and so forth.

So this is a completely baseless scare campaign. Firstly, the opposition is trying to create the impression that the labour movement has never contemplated changes to penalty rates or variations to award-based penalty rates, whereas it always has done and no doubt always will do in the future; and, secondly, it is trying to create a fiction that the government is in a position to change penalty rates, which it is not. That is a matter for the Fair Work Commission. So, really, unless the honourable member wants to keep on hitting his head against this pointless claim, he should find a new scare campaign to run, because this one has no legs.