Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware that just last week the now former Western Australian minister Joe Francis said on 6PR radio: 'Penalty rates: I know people who did not vote for us at a state level because of that.' Prime Minister, why won't you use your power to stop the pay of almost 700,000 workers from being cut?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Fair Work Commission, established by the Labor Party, is the independent umpire which the honourable member opposite pledged to support. He gave an undertaking to support it. And he has broken that. He has thrown that away. It is in a parallel universe. The only time he can be relied upon to stick to his word is when it is coincidentally in his own interest at the time. He has no regard for the truth and no regard for accuracy, abandoning his commitments again and again.

The fact is this: in terms of penalty rates, when the Leader of the Opposition had the power to determine penalty rates, when he was representing the workers in the Australian Workers' Union, what did he do? He sold them out for a bag of gold.