Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

The impact of that won't only be to the recipient of the wages or the entitlements; the hit will be to the Australian economy across the board. I would urge the government: it's a really silly debate to be in. This is not the only element of the bill that depresses wages. There are a series of elements of this bill that weaken bargaining power or provide for circumstances where people who currently, as part-timers, receive overtime will no longer be able to receive it or where very modest pay rises, such as $1 a year, can be locked into agreements for a period of eight years. These sorts of challenges are still in the bill. So I simply say to the government: you're a bit late getting there, in that we offered to get to this point the day after the bill was introduced, but we're there. But, if the government's intention is to have a bill that no longer cuts wages, they're not there yet. We support this amendment, but this bill still needs a tremendous amount of work, and it is not yet a bill that we could support.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

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