Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We were about to talk about her favourite thing—a multinational—and then she leaves through the door. I thought I was making it relevant for her. McDonald's recently, with the support of the union, went to the Fair Work Commission and said, 'We want to roll over our enterprise agreement.' The Fair Work Commission has made it so impossible for them to do that. The enterprise agreement has now lapsed and all their workers will go back on the award. Does this mean higher wages? No; it means lower wages. Does this mean more hours for hardworking Australians trying to get ahead? No. McDonald's has made it clear that they will have to close a significant number of their stores for hours that they would prefer to have them open, because of the complexity of the award system that they support, that they aid, that they abet, that they refuse to reform. And the member for Fraser knows this. The member for Fraser can pretend otherwise, but I know that he and Professor Leigh are fully aware that the huge problem in this country is the rigidity of the industrial relations system—a system that they created, but their major donors won't let them talk about reforming.

So don't be fooled when they walk into this place and bemoan the fact we have underemployment and that real wages aren't growing fast enough, because they are the real obstacles to any increase in real wages, they are the obstacles to innovation in this country, and they are the obstacles to ordinary Australians being able to get ahead. They are the obstacles to young Australians from being able—

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