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

I will ignore the interjection. That is a very good piece of advice. I will take that advice on board and I will ignore it, because they are still barking over there.

So this publican said to me: 'I had to bring three people in for seven hours. That was $500 each person cost with wages, workers comp and superannuation.' He said, 'My gross takings for the day'—gross—'were about $2½ thousand.' That is the gross takings, so he said, 'I would lose $1,000 if I opened my pub on Easter Monday,' so the pub did not open. No-one got any work, the boss did not make any money and he had the day off with his wife. As John Laws has said for decades, 80 per cent of something is better than 100 per cent of nothing. In the case of this pub on Easter Monday, there was nothing. No-one earned any money.

I am quite amazed at the attack because, as I said, Fair Work Australia was set up by Labor and the Greens when they were in government. It is just amazing. The umpire has made a decision. The Fair Work Commission was set up by the Labor government in 2009. The commission was tasked by Labor to review all awards every four years. Those over there commissioned the review every four years. You got it. This decision is part of the four-yearly review of modern awards as established by the Labor government in 2009. The Minister for Workplace Relations in 2013, Bill Shorten, amended the Fair Work Act specifically to require the commission to consider penalty rates as part of that process. Mr Shorten induced the commission to consider penalty rates as part of this process. Labor appointed all members of the commission who made the penalty rates decision. I will repeat that. Labor appointed all the members of the commission who made the penalty rates decision, so Mr Shorten owns this decision. We see that he is now the one complaining about what he constructed with the support of the Greens. That umpire has now made a decision.

Recently Mr Shorten said he would accept the decision of the umpire. No, he will not. He is now protesting and introducing legislation to change it. So get the facts straight. The Labor-Greens alliance in government established the Fair Work Commission, they made sure the rates are reviewed every four years and now the same lot will not accept the decision of what they established. I find that quite amazing. It is amazing what Senator Cash put out on small business yesterday.

Let us have a look at some hypocrisy on penalty rates. You often see family-owned news agencies open every Sunday morning. In country towns especially you see people going down to the paper shop to get their papers and have a chat to the locals. What is the rate for a family-owned news agency on a Sunday? $37.05 per hour, which has been the award penalty rate since 2014-15. But look at Officeworks; what is their Sunday rate? $7 an hour less—$30.05 per hour—