Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity as we head into the holiday period to speak about the tourism industry in Tasmania and the hospitality workers that help make that happen. The tourism industry in Tasmania directly and indirectly contributes about $2.5 billion a year to Tasmania's gross state product, which is the highest economic contributor for any state in Australia. It directly supports 17,500 jobs and directly and indirectly contributes the highest percentage of jobs to Tasmania's employment at 15.3 per cent of the total in the state. A total of 1.17 million people visited Tasmania during the year, and this does not include the burgeoning cruise ship industry.

The tourism industry in Tasmania benefits from the highly skilled workers in our hospitality industry. Hospitality can be a very rewarding career, particularly in Tasmania: the opportunity to work on some of the most pristine coastlines in the world at top-class hotels or in some of the country's best live music venues. There are many workers who take great pride in delivering coffees and beers at local pubs.

However, it saddens me that there are those in this community, and indeed in this House, that would see these hospitality workers that deliver some of the finest food in the country—indeed in the world—take a pay cut. Their ludicrous argument is that the costs saved to businesses would then be shared with our workers in our community as jobs.

The McKell Institute produced a study in 2014 that examined the economic impact of penalty rate cuts in the retail sector of a rural area of New South Wales, and it found that retail workers there would lose millions of dollars per year, as cuts of take-home pay. What effect would this have on this rural economy? A loss of disposable income to the lowest paid workers across rural New South Wales of possibly $11 million, and it is precisely these workers that keep our economy going. These are the workers that keep the Tasmanian economy going. While it may be employers who create jobs in rural centres, it is the workers who consume that keep the local economies ticking over.

A research paper released last week by Citi Research found that cutting penalty rates would increase earnings for shareholders by up to eight per cent. One of the alternatives to an improved dividend to the shareholder is a benefit to consumers. Nowhere does it suggest that this reduction in costs of human resources for a business would then be reinvested or spent on other human resources. It does not take an economic genius to know that the market is designed to find the most efficient way of delivering services and products. Contrary to the arguments put forward by those who would like to see the lowest paid workers in Australia paid less, a reduction in costs simply goes to profit.

As we head into the holiday season, Tasmanian hospitality workers and their families have no idea as to whether they are about to receive one of the biggest pay cuts in decades. What do penalty rates mean for our lowest paid workers? Carol, in Launceston, works weekends in hospitality, and also is a full-time foster parent to her nephew, who has a chronic health condition. Any cut to penalty rates would have a huge impact on Carol's family and her capacity to support and provide for her foster child. It is something that she cannot afford, and does not deserve.

There is also Lititia in Hobart, who works in catering. Weekend rates for her mean the difference between fresh or frozen vegetables for her family, and the ability to provide dance lessons for her daughters. Any cut to the penalty rates would be a pay cut that they cannot afford and they do not deserve. Lititia knows that if weekend rates are cut, her employer will not put on more staff because they do not need more staff. Her employer will just take a larger profit.

Then there is Kirsty from Hobart, who has built a career for herself in hospitality. Every weekend she misses out on special events with her family and friends in order to do her job. When we are out relaxing and enjoying ourselves on Friday and Saturday nights, it is people like Kirsty who will be serving us and making our precious weekends more enjoyable. This Christmas Day, Kirsty is likely to be working again while the rest of us are unwrapping presents and gorging on turkey, ham, prawns and, of course, non-CUB beer. Of course she would like to be fairly compensated for that, and yet again any move by the FWC to reduce penalty rates will result in a pay cut that Kirsty cannot afford and does not deserve.

We in Labor understand that penalty rates continue to be a fundamental part of a strong safety net for Australian workers, enabling low-income workers and workers in highly casualised industries to share in our nation's economic prosperity.

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