Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Approximately 323,000 people are employed in the club, restaurant, cafe, hair and beauty industries. Can the Prime Minister guarantee that these workers will not have their pay cut because of the precedent set by the penalty rates decision which the Prime Minister supported? Will the Prime Minister make a submission to the Fair Work Commission to protect the penalty rates of workers in these industries?

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

No-one can complain that the opposition's question time strategy does not have a lot of variety in it. They are leaping from one topic to another—they have no plan for child care, no plan for energy and no plan for question time. Regarding the Fair Work Commission, every member was put there by the Labor Party, and three of the five were put there by the Leader of the Opposition. The head of it, Mr Ross, of course an assistant secretary of the ACTU, gave a decision on penalty rates recently, which they justified on hundreds of cases of small businesses in the retail and hospitality areas who said that, were the rates to be brought closer to Saturday rates, they would be able to offer more jobs for more people and provide more services for more customers.

The Fair Work Commission decided to back small business. We back small business, and so should Labor. But of course they said they would. Again and again the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Gorton—he was particularly eloquent—said they would support the decision of the Fair Work Commission, whatever it found. They gave commitment after commitment. They appointed the tribunal; they set up the inquiry; and they said they would back it in. Now, of course, they have not backed it in: they have backed away. They are like the new secretary of the ACTU, Sally McManus. She has said that you only have to obey the law if you like it. That is the law for unions. Imagine where we would be if that were the law for everyone. People would only pay tax if they liked it; they would only obey the speed limit if they liked. What are we talking about? This is the new Labor. This is not a Labor that believes in the rule of law. It is not a Labor that believes that there is a law for everybody—no. There is no law for the CFMEU, but everyone else has to obey the law.

Well, things have changed. The Building and Construction Commission is back on the job. Registered organisations law has been passed. Unions have to be accountable for what they do to their members—

Ms Madeleine King interjecting—

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

The member for Brand is warned.

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

and the bill that we introduced into the House today will ensure that all those payments, all those coincidental payments that the AWU received simultaneously with enterprise agreement negotiations, all of those payments, of which the opposition leader is so proud—he is so proud of what he did—are going to have to be disclosed. His members will have to know about it. What we are going to do is stop the corruption, stop the secret payments and let the members know what the union bosses are really up to.