Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak in favour of this motion. It is no surprise that the member for Mayo is railing against this. He is well known for his opposition to penalty rates in any circumstance, but I think the member for Mayo has to keep this in perspective. What we are talking about is declaring after seven o'clock on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve public holidays. Cultural norms would suggest that Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are important in our community. They are culturally important and something special. Indeed, many people in my electorate who migrated from England are used to celebrating the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. We are not talking about an onerous task.

The member for Mayo talked about whole second jobs going. He needs to keep this in perspective. We are talking about two highly significant days in our culture. I think this shows that the state government is doing a great job. I have to say that this is an example of where people can compromise. I know that the member for Mayo is not used to that. Certainly his party here in the federal parliament is not used to working together for the betterment of all, but that is what happened in South Australia. I would like to commend everyone involved. This is something that was championed by the SDA, led by Peter Malinauskas, and a number of other unions. They negotiated with business organisations. I think that is a very good model, where you can get a compromise.

The legislation passed by the state government involves also broadening trading hours in the CBD, and I think that is very important and something that will make our city vibrant. But it does not extend to supermarkets. We have to remember that the policy of the Liberal Party in South Australia is to have total deregulation of shopping hours—24-hour shopping so that retail assistants do not get any time off.

This is not just something that, as the member for Mayo said, insiders think. If he went out and spoke to his constituents and said, 'Do you think people should have a choice whether or not to work after seven o'clock on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve; and, if you do choose to, should you be rewarded with penalty rates,' I think he would find that a lot of average people would say, 'Yes, we do think that is right. We do think that is the decent thing to do.' Indeed, a survey of people found that 80 per cent agreed with this. They agreed and believed that this was the right thing to do.

I do not think it is too much to ask that on these special, cultural occasions we give people some time off. Having worked in retail—and I know people in the hospitality industry—I know the lead-up to Christmas is very hard. It is very difficult. I used to work in a big retail company and it is a lot of work, and I have to say they work towards this in a very diligent way. Having some time off is really incredibly important. So this is an agreement of government, business and the union movement, working together to get a good outcome not just for workers but for whole communities, for families that want to be able to spend Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve with their loved ones.

While the member for Mayo would like to blow this up into a debate about penalty rates—as I have said before, we do know he is against penalty rates—we on this side of the House—

Mr Briggs interjecting—

believe strongly that people should be remunerated if they have to work at difficult times, at times that are not usual working hours. Therefore, I think this is good. I would like to congratulate Peter Malinauskas, Business SA and also Premier Wetherill on really showing a lot of foresight on this issue. (Time expired)

Mr Briggs interjecting—

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