Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was not going to speak again, because I know people would like to go to a vote, but that has to be challenged. What has really been happening is that, under Work Choices, casuals are being converted to full time because under Work Choices there is no requirement to pay the casual loading now. You can spread the hours—and we have had this debate—split shifts and average people’s working hours over 12 months. What has been happening—and we see it all through the workplace—is that people who were working casual hours have simply been converted to full time on flexible hours, because you can spread the hours over 12 months and avoid paying the casual leave loadings because there is no requirement for that under this government. For this government to say that Work Choices has resulted in a conversion of casual to full time and that that is a good thing is simply a misrepresentation of what is really happening in the workplace.