Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, it definitely wasn't goat; it was steak. In Rockhampton, the beef capital of Queensland, you wouldn't eat anything other than steak. The Giddy Goat does serve a very good steak sandwich, but it also does the right thing by its employees who cook the steak sandwich for you and who bring it to you, and that's why I and many other people will be supporting them with our custom. When you are in Rockhampton, I recommend getting your coffee from Patti Mules's Fast Lane Drive-Thru Coffee, which the shadow minister, Brendan O'Connor, and I visited some weeks ago to congratulate Patti on her decision to continue to pay penalty rates to her workers who make coffee on weekends and on public holidays. You could feel from going into both of those establishments the high morale, the camaraderie and the shared objective between the employer and the employees, because they were being treated fairly. They felt they were all on the same playing field and everyone could contribute to making sure that there was good customer service. People wanted to turn up to work. So there are great examples of businesses in Central Queensland which are still doing the right thing by their employees and continuing to pay penalty rates, despite the fact that this government is effectively urging them to go forward and cut their workers' wages.

I have mentioned on numerous occasions that the problem of insecure work and stagnant wages is crippling Central Queensland. We know that they have been going through very tough times since the end of the mining boom. Not only are people struggling to hang on to the work they have got; but they're struggling even more to get secure work, permanent full-time work, rather than having to take up options of labour hire and casual employment. So the very last thing that the Central Queensland economy needs is people's wages being cut in the form of cuts to penalty rates.

The other main part of Queensland that I have the honour of representing is the Logan-Gold Coast corridor. Statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics make very clear that, if you're looking all around Australia to see what impact this cut to penalty rates will have on different locations, it is no exaggeration to say that the Gold Coast will be the epicentre of the cuts to penalty rates. When you think about that, it's actually not surprising, because so much of the old Gold Coast economy is based on tourism, retail and hospitality. That's why most people in this chamber and most people in this country go to the Gold Coast. Sure, it's a holiday location. It's a fantastic holiday location. But the reason that everyone has a great holiday when they go to the Gold Coast is that they're waited upon and served by hardworking people, who depend upon their penalty rates to be able to afford their family bills.

The Bureau of Statistics figures show that there are nearly 60,000 workers across the Gold Coast who potentially stand to lose their penalty rates because they work in these industries where penalty rates are going to be cut. In fact, if you look at it in terms of federal electorates, of the top 10 federal electorates across Australia with the most people who stand to lose their penalty rates, three of them are on the Gold Coast. Three of the top 10 federal electorates in Australia with the most people who stand to lose from the penalty rate cuts are on the Gold Coast, and it's headed by the minister for tourism, Steven Ciobo, the member for Moncrieff. That is the electorate across the entire country with the most people employed in retail and hospitality and, therefore, that is the electorate in Australia where most people stand to lose pay out of their own pay packet because of these penalty rate cuts. It's closely followed by the electorate of McPherson on the southern end of the Gold Coast, held by Karen Andrews. That's the fourth most affected electorate in the country. The sixth most affected is the electorate of Fadden, held by Mr Stuart Robert. So three of the top 10 electorates across the whole country where people will suffer most from these penalty rate cuts are on the Gold Coast.

One thing that is common across these electorates on the Gold Coast and the electorate of Capricornia, which I have already talked about, is that they are all represented by members of the LNP, all of whom have not said one thing to stand up for those workers who are going to lose their penalty rates. Instead, each of those members of parliament is cheering on the penalty rate cuts under this ridiculous economic theory that it's going to lead to more people being employed. We know the real reason why these members of parliament from the LNP have been happy to stand by and encourage bosses to cut the penalty rates of their workers, and that is that these members of parliament don't actually care about the working people on the Gold Coast or in Capricornia. All they care about is lining the pockets of the people they represent, particularly big business.

The other thing I'd like to mention in terms of penalty rate cuts is that it is another example of how this government completely has it in for young people. It doesn't matter what kind of young people we're talking about. If you're a young working person, particularly in retail and hospitality, where a lot of young people work, you're going to get your penalty rates cut under this government. If you're unemployed, they're coming after your Newstart, your dole. They want to make you go through random drug testing. They're putting forward dodgy internships under the PaTH program, where people are already coming forward and showing that they are being required to work many, many hours over the number that they're paid for, to get nothing in return. Only last week there was another example that came out of someone doing one of these PaTH internships sponsored by the Turnbull government, and rather than actually getting pay for the hours above 40 hours that they're working, they're getting gift cards. That is the kind of exploitation that we're seeing under a program put forward by this government.

Young working people are losing their penalty rates. Young unemployed people are losing their dole, getting drug tested and getting pushed onto dodgy internship programs. If you're in training you're suffering from apprenticeship cuts and cuts to funding to TAFE. Of course, if you're a university student, you're about to suffer, if the government gets its way, from the cuts to university funding and increases to university fees. Penalty rates are just one more example of how this government is doing everything it can to hurt the future of young people and make their lives harder. It's got to stop. That's why we are putting forward these amendments to this bill to try to restore the penalty rates which have been taken away and to make sure that young working people or older people who are receiving penalty rates get the wages they're entitled to.

The only other thing I want to say in terms of penalty rates is to respond to the argument that is sometimes put by the government that cutting penalty rates will be good for the economy. Nothing could be further from the truth. What businesses need to be sustainable and profitable, and to have a long-term future and employ more people, is a secure customer base that has money in their pockets and can come in and buy a cup of coffee and something from the shop. The surest way to make sure that people have the money to go and spend in shops, cafes and businesses across the country is to make sure that people's wages are increasing at a reasonable rate. This government is doing the opposite. It is taking money out of people's pockets by reducing their wages. They're doing it to their own workers in the public sector by refusing to enter into fair wage deals and driving down wages. They're doing it by supporting cuts to penalty rates for people in the private sector. All these things put together are having a devastating impact on our economy. They are taking money out of people's pockets, meaning they have less money to spend in the economy. That is going to be bad for business. It is going to mean fewer jobs—whether we're talking about the Gold Coast, Capricornia or anywhere else—and that's why I support these amendments to restore penalty rates.