Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A number of my colleagues have talked today about the devastating impact that cuts to penalty rates for 700,000 of the poorest paid workers in this country will have. It turns out that those workers are not the only workers the government has in its sights for pay cuts.

Labor was frankly shocked and disgusted today to see the reports stating that AFP officers—officers of the Australian Federal Police who do so much to protect us—are up for pay cuts. These are people who have not seen a pay rise in two years. They are in the middle of an enterprise bargain. We are being told that 280 of their hardest working officers are facing pay cuts of up to 35 per cent.

This is a government that loves to shroud itself in the Australian flag. When the AFP does a big drug bust, Minister Keenan loves to get up and look like he is tough on crime. They love to talk the talk when it comes into the parliament, but when they go down the hall to the cabinet room we see something very different—and that is a huge cut to the AFP budget. We are seeing projected cuts over the next four years of $100 million. Would you believe that the people who are up for pay cuts are the very same people who protect the Prime Minister? These are people who put their lives on the line for our Prime Minister every day and yet he is threatening to cut their pay by 35 per cent. It is not good enough, and Labor will fight against these cuts. They are unfair and they are unAustralian.