Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

The minister suggests I am misrepresenting him, and I invite anybody who is listening perhaps to go back to the Hansard record. The point is that this goes to the sort of society we are. Work Choices was a piece of legislation that was as much about the sort of Australia we want, the sorts of values we want to inculcate and the attitude to work and working life that we believe in. We have always taken a view in this country that there are some fundamental rights, some fundamental values and some fundamental principles such as a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work and the eight-hour day, because behind that we think employees are entitled to spend some time with their family. We have always had the view that the provision of reasonably remunerated work and reasonable conditions goes to the heart and the dignity of working people in their employment lives and in the nature of our society. What we are talking about here is that there are some things we should value—we should say that people who wish to attend religious activities on Good Friday or Christmas Day should be allowed to do so. That should be classed as being a reasonable ground for refusal.

I urge the Senate to consider supporting these two amendments. I would have thought they were unremarkable and consistent with the way in which most of us would approach these sorts of public holidays. They are days to which a great many people in our community ascribe a significant amount of spiritual and religious value. It would seem to us on this side of the chamber that there is benefit in placing in the legislation some protection for that and some recognition of the traditions that many people observe in relation to these particular days.