John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting to contribute to the debate on the answers to questions by Senator Cash. Senator Cash is right when she says that when it comes to penalty rates, the sorts of standards that are set out there are set by the Fair Work Commission. It is as simple as that. As I said in a speech here just recently—I think it was on Senator Leyonhjelm's private member's bill or a general business discussion on a Thursday—they are set by the Fair Work Commission, and that is the end of the story.

Now, if there are going to be changes at the Fair Work Commission then Fair Work Australia are going to have to do their job to make changes if they wish to, without any arguments for it. I said in that speech that I have a problem with some of the penalty rates. Let me explain why. Come a public holiday, anyone working who is 21 years old or over gets paid at least $47 an hour, plus workers comp plus superannuation. It costs employers about $57 an hour. So here is my problem: if you go out to a country hotel in a small community on, say, Easter Monday and walk into the pub and see who is working at the bar, it is the publican—the male publican and his wife. Or, if the licensee is a female, it is the publican who is the wife and her husband or family who are running the pub. Guess what? No-one is getting any casual work or penalty rates in that pub on that weekend. Why? Because they cannot take enough money to pay the extra costs. So what do we have? Everyone missing out!

I have been on both sides of the fence. I have been an employer and an employee. I have said that whatever comes to be in this place, that life is about fairness—a fair day's work for a fair day's pay and vice versa: a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. If you are working weekends or odd times then you should be paid more. Imagine the nurses, male and female—perhaps I might be game enough to say that most of them are female—working night shifts. They must be paid more for the inconvenience—the odd hours and the long hours that they have to work. They are very tiring hours.

There are our ambos and our police officers—those people working through the night. Many of them are called into hospitals—doctors and specialists—and of course they have to be paid more for the inconvenience and extra work. Every worker for the public must be treated in the same way and be paid extra for those difficult hours and especially for times like public holidays. Most people are at the dam, perhaps having a barbecue with their friends, or watching sport or whatever, and these people are going to work.

I make the point again that business does the employing. I am sure there are many coffee shops in Sydney that simply do not open on those days. So how many people get penalty rates on those days? None. It comes back to the owner or manager of the business making the decisions. We can regulate what we want in this place and make whatever we want but it comes back to the business owners to say, 'Well, I'm sorry, we're not opening the doors because our costs are so high that we cannot make a profit. We're losing money.' Businesses are not charities; they are not out there to open their doors to lose money, even though many over many years—probably all my life and longer—have opened their doors and lost money in difficult times.

It was amazing during question time today, the debate about jobs. I cannot believe those opposite—and the Greens especially—when it comes to the free trade agreements. I am very fortunate enough to live in a town where we have an abattoir—Bindaree Beef. It is a family owned business, with great people doing a great job and employing 850 people. But demand for beef is huge. The prices have come off a bit of late because of the hot, dry weather, but in general the beef market is doing very well—the best ever in my lifetime and that of anyone else in the beef industry.

Those abattoirs are increasing their work and the number of their employees. They are looking for workers. Unfortunately, they do not get them all in Australia. Many people in Australia do not want to work in an abattoir. They would rather stay on the unemployment benefits and have the workers brought in from overseas. But with these trade agreements and with the lower Australian dollar, we are getting more exports and more value. These businesses are growing and there are more jobs. Yet I cannot believe that the Greens are saying that these trade agreements are no good. They want to keep the tariffs on; they want to curb our businesses, especially agriculture and the beef, lamb and mutton industries. And there are the wine and dairy industries—these are industries which bring so much wealth to our nation. The better we can do as far that as trade agreements go and remove those barriers then the more people will be employed and businesses will grow.

Thank goodness, businesses grow! Every big business started as a small business, and when they grow they employ more people. We should encourage that. This whole building here, both houses, should encourage more growth, more employment, more jobs and a better living standard for all. But instead, we have some opposite just being cynical about the trade agreements that Andrew Robb, the trade minister, has done a magnificent job on over the time he has had that portfolio.