Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, Senator Reynolds, I am, but it probably comes as no surprise to you. We all saw reports today that workers at Big W were employed on, lo and behold, an enterprise agreement. But, guess what? It was negotiated by the SDA—a union—and the AWU, the former union of the current Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten, and guess what it did? It significantly disadvantaged workers who worked on a Sunday. These workers are receiving $7.74 per hour less than the relevant award rate, and those who work a full Sunday shift—get this—need to work more than 50 hours during the week just to make up for what they've lost on a Sunday as a result of the deal struck for them by the union that was allegedly meant to represent them. Hypocrisy is thy name when it comes to unions negotiating penalty rate deals with big employers.

But at the same time—and this is probably why there is silence on the other side—we have a massive scare campaign being run by those on the other side in relation to the independent Fair Work Commission, set up by those on the other side; the president of the independent Fair Work Commission, appointed by those on the other side; conducting a process in relation to penalty rates, put forward by those on the other side; and making a decision that in a small way benefits small business. Those on the other side—again, dead silence today, colleagues—are very, very quiet when their union mates do deals with big businesses to lower or abolish the penalty rates of low-paid workers in this country. (Time expired)