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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Once again, we see in this government's response a complete lack of empathy, a complete lack of understanding, a complete disregard for the fact that many Australian workers depend on penalty rates to put food on the table and shoes on their kids' feet. This is a response that demonstrates the problems with this government. It demonstrates that this government just does not care. Those opposite hide behind the proposition that the Fair Work Commission, the independent umpire, made this decision and the government was some kind of bystander in this approach. But what we saw was a campaign by senior government ministers and senior government parliamentary secretaries. We heard backbench members constantly backing up the business claim that penalty rates should go. Well, Labor will not accept that, and workers and families will have a clear choice at the next election—that is, between a government that in this report demonstrates its lack of concern, lack of care, for ordinary Australian workers and Labor, who will put working people at the forefront of our policy agenda for the next election.

We had months of attacks on penalty rates by the right wing of the coalition, we had months of campaigning out in the community by the coalition against penalty rates, and we had the Fair Work Commission, in my view, make a serious mistake with this decision. The government actually argued that the Fair Work Commission got it right; it had all these submissions. But the problem was that the Fair Work Commission got it wrong. This was one of the worst decisions ever by the Fair Work Commission. The Fair Work Commission itself, you find when you read the decision, accept that this decision will cause hardship to workers who lose their penalty rates. In a period when incomes are falling in this country, when we've seen the coalition preside over stagnating wages, adding another component to that—that is, taking away penalty rates that workers rely on to get a decent wage in this country—is outrageous.

We offered the coalition, on many occasions, the opportunity to join with Labor and other parties in this place to reject the decision of the Fair Work Commission. They refused to take that up. And we see the proposition, the arguments they put up, here in their pathetic attempt to justify cuts to penalty rates. We see again where the government really stand. They would hand $65 billion of public money to businesses in this country, including the banks and massive multinational corporations, and take the penalty rates away from ordinary Australian workers. I find it unbelievable. This coalition will pay a price at the next election for this callous disregard for the working poor in this country.

I am one of the few in this place who have actually depended on penalty rates to feed a family—not to get me through university, because I never went to university. I never had an opportunity to care about penalty rates on the basis that it might help me pay for my tertiary education. My penalty rates helped put food on the table. My penalty rates helped me, now and again, once in a blue moon, to maybe buy a pizza or McDonald's for the kids. My penalty rates helped pay my mortgage, helped pay my rent and helped put food on the table. Without my penalty rates, I would never have been in a position to take my kids for a holiday once in a blue moon.

That's the life of many, many Australian workers. That's the life of many Australian families. They depend on penalty rates to actually get a living—and not a living in some mansion in the eastern suburbs on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour, like the Prime Minister, who's so remote and so removed from the daily struggles of ordinary Australian workers—not like many on the other side, who have never had to work for a penalty rate to feed their family. They've never had to do that, and yet they come here on the massive salaries that are enjoyed by politicians and take a position to support a cut to penalty rates for the working poor in this country. I just find it absolutely obnoxious, especially when the Fair Work Commission has said itself that this will create hardship for ordinary Australians.

Not only do this mob across the chamber support and set up campaigns to remove penalty rates for Australian workers but they continually bring bills and legislate in this place to make it harder for workers to bargain. They make it harder for workers to come together against the power and influence of the employer so that they can act collectively and actually negotiate decent wages and conditions. You've only got to see what the result of that has been: diminishing enterprise bargains in this country, diminishing agreements, diminishing outcomes for workers and stagnating wages. We see workers in this country having to battle to actually put food on the table, to pay their electricity bills, to meet their commitments, to pay the rent or pay a mortgage.

This mob across the chamber don't care. They would rather hand $65 billion to business on the basis of some crazy, outdated, unproved, unsustainable argument that the trickle-down effect will create more jobs and benefits for working people. What a load of codswallop! What a load of nonsense! It didn't work under Ronald Reagan in the US, it didn't work under Thatcher in the UK and it won't work under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Australia.

People are just sick and tired of people that are so remote, so privileged, so elite in their lifestyles, telling ordinary Australians that they cannot bargain effectively, that they've got to give up their penalty rates and that they've got to accept stagnating wages. While profits are going through the roof for corporations and businesses in this country, wages are declining. That's what this government has delivered in this country. They've delivered this on the basis of delivering for their mates who put money in their electoral coffers every time an election is called. Business is handing money over to the coalition, and the coalition is delivering declining living standards in this country. This is what we will be dealing with at the next election. I look forward to the next election, because fairness, equity and decency will trump their crazy economics and make sure we provide decent rights, decent conditions and not trickle-down economics in this country. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.