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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) to questions without notice asked by Senators Cameron and Urquhart today relating to penalty rates.

For anyone listening in, if you want to know the difference between a party that cares for ordinary families and workers in this country and a party who has absolutely no concern for ordinary families, look at Labor and the coalition. The coalition do not care about families that will lose penalty rates. The coalition do not care about families that rely on social security. The coalition do not have a bone in their body that worries about the implications of the ideological decisions on ordinary working families in this country. The coalition have an opportunity this week to support Labor's bill in this place to overcome the wrong decision by the Fair Work Commission that will take away from some of the poorest workers in this country—not just some of them but 700,000—and yet Senator Brandis today even tried to deny that they support the decision and that the Prime Minister supports the decision of the Fair Work Commission.

Senator Brandis says that the Prime Minister has never supported a cut to penalty rates. But I say that Senator Brandis should go and listen to the interview between the Prime Minister and Neil Mitchell on 3AWon 17 March 2017, when the Prime Minister said, 'Well, we do support it, Neil, and I've been very clear about that.' That is what the Prime Minister said, and Senator Brandis was just wrong. Senator Brandis is someone who is not unused to trying to mislead the Senate on a number of issues, but this is another misleading of the Senate. The Prime Minister was clear, and he went on later to say, 'The Fair Work Commission decided to back small business and we back small business.' So that is the position of this mob over here. They want to cut the wages of the lowest paid workers in this country.

When you see industrial groups like the AiG, the Australian Industry Group, going to the commission and arguing for cuts to penalty rates then you have to wonder who is next, because the Australian Industry Group are predominantly in metals and manufacturing. They have argued that penalty rates should be cut. As a former blue-collar worker in the manufacturing industry I know how important it is for manufacturing workers to have access to their penalty rates to be able to take home a decent rate of pay to make sure that their kids have a meal on the table, they can have a holiday once in a blue moon and they can take their kids on an excursion or let them go on a school excursion.

These are the battles that normal families have that that lot over there have not got a clue about. Most of them have lived in comfort and many of them have lived in luxury all of their lives. They do not know what it is like to front up at the Woollies check-out and wonder whether you have enough money on your MasterCard to pay the bill. They do not understand that and yet they would cut welfare for ordinary Australians and they would cut penalty rates for the poorest Australians. They do not have a caring bone in their body.

At the same time they say they will give $50 billion in tax cuts to big business. So it is penalty rate cuts for the poorest in the country and $50 billion in tax cuts for business in this country, including the four big banks, which are going to get about $8 billion in tax cuts. What is fair and reasonable about that? Absolutely nothing. Labor have said in our submission that this decision should be set aside. If you compare our submission that looks after ordinary families and working people with the submission that this rabble of a government have put in, you will see that they are chalk and cheese. We stand up for workers; they put them down. (Time expired)