Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I cannot believe what I have just heard from that guy over there. He spoke for five minutes, and he could not even speak about one of the biggest topics to hit the Australian community this year without reading his speech. My goodness me, the Libs must be so proud of your effort.

I want to correct some of the nonsense mentioned by Senator Bushby. I am going to defend the unions, because in my previous life, I, as you probably did too, Madam Deputy President, spent many, many hours, days, nights, and weekends negotiating enterprise bargaining agreements with workers. The government comes out with this nonsense, asking why someone in a small family owned chicken shop is not paying the same as a bigger business. I will tell you why, Senator Bushby. I will make it very easy for you. Enterprise bargaining has been taking place since 1996. The first EBA I ever did was after I came off the road as a long-distance truckie in 1991. We traded off a number of clauses within the award, all ticked off through the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, because we wanted to give employees the opportunity for a pay rise but also give some flexibility in the workplace for the employers. Remember those days, Madam Deputy President? Senator Bushby, you talk about the family hardware store having to pay $7 more an hour on weekends than Bunnings. Did it ever occur to you that the hourly rate of pay in those big stores for the normal Monday to Friday, for the 7.6-hour spread of hours, is a significantly higher rate? Did it ever occur to you that that significantly higher rate goes onto overtime during the week, it goes to superannuation, it is calculated in annual leave, it is calculated on 10 public holidays a year? Did that ever enter your brain, Senator Bushby, through you, Madam Deputy President?

People on this side have done the hard yards. We have consulted with workers. Whether you on that side like it or not, there are a number of employees, not just the lowest paid but mums who may work on the weekend, while dad is at home looking after the kids, who enjoy that higher hourly rate of pay when they are serving food and drink to you and me. I must say this so that the people in the public gallery can understand: the lowest paid senator in this place is on $195,000 a year, yet there are 30 of them on the other side who cannot wait to stand proudly to drop the rate of pay on a Sunday for some hospitality workers, some pharmacy workers, some fast food workers, some restaurant workers and some bar workers. You are proud of that, Senator Bushby? What really annoys me is that you sit there and you boast about it. To listen, through you, madam Deputy President, to some of the nonsense that comes from over there: 'How dare these workers want to be paid at a higher rate of pay on a Sunday?' It is because that is what they have got.

Senator Abetz said that Labor wants to drive people out of business. What about those businesses that now open on Sundays and pay their workers the current rate of pay? This is what your mates are going to do, Senator Bushby. You may have a restaurant or you may have a cafe or you may have a bar that opens on a Sunday, does its trade and is happy to pay the rates of pay to its workers, the majority of whom may be students. Through your stupidity you are going to give businesses that have not operated on Sundays the opportunity to open their doors on a Sunday, yes, while offering a significantly lower rate of pay than the business who was already doing it. What will happen next is that that restaurateur or that bar owner is going to have to go to their workers and say, 'You know, I was paying double time and I was happy to do it, but now I have these other seven, eight, nine or 10 shops opening in a shopping centre or somewhere around here I can no longer afford it.' He or she is going to say to their workers, 'We've got two options. We're losing business because they are on the Liberals' new rates of pay for Sundays, so we are going to have to either drop your rate of pay,'—and what employer wants to do that? What decent employer wants to go to their loyal employees, who have given up their Sundays to work—and the employer has been happy to pay that rate—and face them and say, 'I've got three options. I drop your rate, I do not open on Sunday or I employ someone else who does.' You know how it works, Madam Deputy President, the majority of these bar workers and restaurant and cafe workers on Sundays are casuals. A lot of them are kids. A lot of them are students working through university. You must feel so proud of your contribution, Senator Bushby. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.