Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Very briefly, the opposition opposes this amendment. It does remove the ability for industry awards to deal with these sorts of issues on an industry by industry basis. Even before certain changes were made to the industrial relations framework in 2004, the reality was many awards were moving away and these were negotiated and agreed to by workers, unions and employers. Indeed, our friends in the media had an award whereby they were not compensated specifically for working on public holidays or weekends. It was put into the total mix of their overall pay.

I know those businesses that do pay penalty rates for particular days of the year are in great difficulty. I know that with my local Coles supermarket, which pays penalties on Australia Day, all the young workers queued up to be put on the roster for Australia Day, for the extra money. As for protecting family life, in fact they were all queuing up to work on the public holiday, which is exactly counter that reasoning. That then provided difficulties for the employer as to which people would be favoured, because not all of them could be rostered on on Australia Day. As a result, some employees had to be chosen over others and those that missed out literally did miss out financially. So it does cause problems for some employers. So, having said that, I note we as an opposition are minded to oppose the Greens amendment.

Question negatived.