Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Sunday will be the last Sunday that some workers in Australia receive their full penalty rates. It will be the last Sunday that workers who are already in insecure jobs and, in many cases, already on low wages will keep their full penalty rates—because, of course, this government has not taken the opportunities in recent days, yesterday and again today, to act on this penalty rate cut and do the right thing by those thousands of Australians for whom this weekend will be their last weekend working on full penalty rates. What we have seen from the government, indeed, is a complete disregard and a complete lack of understanding about what these workers go through. They are in insecure work and often on low wages, as I said.

There are tens of thousands of people in my home state of Tasmania who will be affected by this. People in this place would know that Tasmanians are already on some of the lowest wages in Australia. They would also know that this money will be ripped out of local economies. This money will no longer be spent in small businesses in those local economies. Of course, the people earning these penalty rates often spend all of their income. They are 100 per cent consumers because they are low-income earners. Indeed, I have some great organisations and companies and small businesses in my electorate who are refusing to cut their workers' penalty rates, and I want to stand up for them today and congratulate them on their stance, standing up for their workers. Some of the owners of the facilities in my electorate are saying things like: 'You can't put a price on staff loyalty.' An owner of a cafe in Margate in my electorate said:

If someone is prepared to give up their Sunday and relinquish time with their loved ones, we need to compensate them for that.

We are a tightly knit crew and treating people fairly flows through to the service we give our customers.

The public reaction from the community to these owners who are standing up and saying they will not cut their staff's penalty rates has been overwhelming. People are saying it is great to see that small businesses care and that people understand these workers are already often doing it tough and already on low pay. This sends a great message to the local communities and results in the types of reactions that we are getting in Tasmania from those small businesses that are standing up for their workers and saying they will not cut penalty rates, despite the federal government agreeing to this penalty rate cut, despite the federal government not taking the opportunities that were presented in the parliament yesterday and despite one government member finally having the courage of his conviction on this issue because he understands it is going to be a big issue in his electorate. But the government members, on the whole, apart from that one member, continually voted to support cuts to penalty rates, cuts to these workers' take-home pay and cuts to money in their local economies.