Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for that protection, Mr Acting Deputy President Back. You see, the Australian Labor Party do not like hearing the undisputed facts. Can they dispute these wage rates where workers on union-organised enterprise agreements are being paid less in the big businesses in town as opposed to the small businesses? I will not be dissuaded from pursuing this issue.

An independently run clothes shop open on a Sunday has to pay their worker $7 an hour more than David Jones. A family bookshop has to pay their worker $8 an hour more than Target. A family newsagent has to pay $7 an hour more than Officeworks. A family bottle shop has to pay their worker $7 an hour more than Dan Murphy's. A family hardware store has to pay their worker $5 an hour more than Bunnings—and so the list goes on.

The union officials that make up the benches of the Australian Labor Party have spent their lives trading away penalty rates. They have spent their lives setting up the Fair Work Act. They have spent their lives stacking out the Fair Work Commission with Labor appointees. Now they have the audacity to turn around to the Australian people and say that somehow the Turnbull Liberal-National Party government is denying people their just wages.