Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take-Home Pay) Bill will protect the take-home pay of 700,000 low-paid workers, and this is at a time when inequality is at a 75-year high under this coalition government. Inequality is huge in this country. Wages growth is at a historic low and unemployment is at historic highs. These cuts campaigned for by the Prime Minister and members of the government affect 700,000 Australians and will have a particularly devastating effect on women, migrant communities, young people and regional communities. The McKell Institute's analysis states:

For many, the changes are dramatic: full time or part time retail workers who work a full 8-hour shift, for example, will lose at least $72.90 per week. Annually, this equates to a $3499 loss.

This is the equivalent of a 10 per cent pay cut for these workers—10 per cent out of the lowest paid workers in the country. In relation to regional communities, the McKell Institute estimated a partial abolition of penalty rates in the retail and hospitality sectors would result in:

… workers in Rural Australia losing between $370.7 million per annum and $691.5 million per annum … a loss in disposable income of between $174.6 million per annum and $343.5 million per annum to local economies in Rural Australia.

How could One Nation, who say they stand up for the battlers but do nothing about it? How could One Nation and Senator Hanson sell workers out for this amount? How could they do this? They run around the country telling people that they stand up for the battlers, yet they are going to take $3½ thousand out of the pay packets of rural and regional workers. What else will they do? They will destroy local economies because these are the workers who actually go out and buy the fish and chips, Senator Hanson. They use the money to buy fish and chips. They do not put the money in the bank. They do not go on cruises overseas. They use their money to go and maybe once in a blue moon buy some fish and chips in the local fish and chip shop, and keep that fish and chip shop profitable. That is what they do, Senator Hanson, but you do not understand it. But now you are not a fish and chippie; now, you are a senator.