Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

With this MPI, you have to hand it to Labor—you've got to give them a bit of credit. They're always misleading, always deceiving, always denying the truth. We just had the member for Wills over there tell us that we've been cutting money out of education—out of secondary and primary school. What is it about record spending that you do not understand? Record spending, by the very name, indicates to us that it is higher than the level that existed before. The Labor Party demonstrate complete amnesia when it comes to their statements in the past on so many issues. Most importantly, there is no baseless scare campaign, however unbelievable or however outrageous, that they will not promote. Apart from having no memory, they seem to have no shame either. I suspect, after their latest commitment to unwind the already legislated tax cuts to small and medium business, they have no brains either.

Labor are conducting a consistent attack on business. The leader, the member for Maribyrnong, said no less in an address to the BCA. They now attack the independent umpire's decision on penalty rates. The Labor Party have a penchant for forgetfulness. They forget Mr Shorten's record. The PM says the member for Maribyrnong is the champion of stripping away penalty rates. Well, he's right. He made a deal with Cleanevent to abolish 50 per cent penalty rates with no compensation for workers, but he hoovered up a secret kickback for the union, which suggests that he is the champion. The shoppies' union have engineered deals with young workers at McDonald's which have made them $5,000 a year worse off than the award. There were special deals for KFC, Woolworths, Big W and Bunnings, all delivering substantially less than the award, while small, struggling businesses have to pay higher rates. For the workers, with friends like those, they sure don't need enemies.

What is plain is that as a result of the unions doing these secret deals with big business for undisclosed reasons, small businesses have been handed a wages sheet which runs at a significant premium to competitors because they lack the ability to do these secret, under-the-table deals. I say to the workers: have a look at what that mob does to you. Have a look at what the Labor Party are doing to you. Have a look at what they want to do. They want to destroy your jobs, take away your personal tax cuts and raid your retirement savings.

The Fair Work Commission was established under Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard. It was designed by the ALP to protect Australian workers' rights so that Australian workers would never again be exploited, we were told. The member for Maribyrnong personally appointed the commission members that made the decision to reduce the penalty rates. We assume that he appointed people he trusted. We would assume that he appointed people that he considered to be intelligent and trustworthy. He also put in a mechanism dictating that awards would be reviewed every four years, perhaps even suspecting that when that occurred he might no longer be in government.

The commission took 6,000 submissions, saw 143 witnesses and had 39 days of hearings. It was a well-considered decision. Why? It was because they knew that the scale of the penalty rates—particularly those inflicted on the hospitality sector—was destroying jobs. They voted and they ruled in favour of those people who need jobs, the unemployed people. When asked on Neil Mitchell's program if he would accept Fair Work's decision—I know this has been brought up by previous speakers—the member for Maribyrnong answered twice, 'Yes, yes.' A bit like the cock crowing three times, he answered, 'Yes, yes,' and then said, 'I said I would accept the independent tribunal.' Now we know that he won't accept the independent tribunal's decision. Every possible variable was under the opposition's control, and now he sooks that his personally selected people at his government's organisation got it wrong. Perhaps he should consider that maybe he has it wrong. Perhaps he is driven by factors other than workers' interests.

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