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

Last week, low-paid workers around this country were hit with a shocking decision that will see the take-home pay of 700,000 working people slashed right across this country. Considering that wages in Australia have been stagnant ever since this government was elected, the decision is a kick in the guts to working people who are already struggling to get by. How is that jobs and growth going? Seven hundred thousand people will have their pay cut, every one of them losing hard earned and much needed income. That is a significant cut to the take-home pay of those affected and it will certainly lead to working people being unable to afford to make ends meet. For the life of me, I have tried but I just cannot understand why low-paid workers are always in the firing line of this cruel Liberal government. They have refused to stand up for working people time and time again, and they could not be bothered to lift a finger to assist low-paid workers. They are arrogant and out of touch and would rather give $50 billion to big businesses and the big four banks than stand up for working people and their hard-won and well-earned pay and their conditions.

Working people in my electorate of Lindsay will be particularly affected by this bad decision. We have a large number of retail and hospitality workers in Western Sydney, and reports in The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday named my community as one of the worst hit by this cut. Labor will not sit by and let this happen to hardworking Australians. This government is like a mob of termites at a log party, carving out penalty rates for working people in this country.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members are not going to turn this into a shouting match. Any more of that and there will be evictions.