Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand here today to give those opposite a bit of an IR lesson. They seem to choose to ignore the facts. When we talk about better off overall in collective bargaining we genuinely mean better off overall. We have members of the government saying in here and publicly, 'How dare McDonald's pay less on a Sunday than a small takeaway shop down the road.' What they fail to tell the Australian people is that McDonald's has a collective agreement that is better off overall against the award. There is a higher Monday-to-Friday rate. Workers at Macdonald's earn more than somebody working in the shop down the road because their agreement sits above the award and it does not fall below.

There is a clause within collective bargaining that says that any agreement that is reached must be better off overall. This is the same for Crown casino workers. There are not too many people in hospitality who earn more than a Crown casino worker. They have what is called a rolled up rate where what they get paid on Monday is what they also get paid on Sunday. But here is the catch. It is a much higher rate. The annual salary for someone working at Crown casino is $48,000 a year. There are not too many small businesses or the Prime Minister championing that every single person working in hospitality earn that kind of money. This government needs to back down on its scare campaign. (Time expired)