Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 1 July this year, if you are a millionaire in Australia you will get a $16½ thousand tax cut. But the very next day, 11,630 workers in the electorate of Kingsford Smith will lose take-home pay when their penalty rates are cut. It says everything about the priorities of this Turnbull government: tax cuts for multinational corporations, tax cuts for the highest income earners in the country and capital gains tax discounts for property investors. But, when it comes to protecting the take-home pay of the lowest paid workers in this country, most of whom are women or part-time and casual workers, that mob over there will not lift a finger. They will not do anything to protect the wages of low-paid workers. Unemployment is up, underemployment is at record levels and real wages are going backwards, and this government supports taking up to $70 a week off some of the lowest paid Australian workers.

I am proud to be part of the Labor Party, which will stand up for the rights of low-paid workers and which has put a bill to this parliament asking the government to support protecting the rights of low-paid workers. If this government is in touch with the Australian people, it will support Labor's bill to protect the take-home pay of some of Australia's lowest paid workers and it will stop cutting their penalty rates. It is not too late to stand up for Australian workers. (Time expired)