Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today in this chamber it is with great pride that I speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025, one that protects the penalty and overtime rates of Australian workers. It is a bill that goes to the very heart of Labor values: the protection and safeguarding of the working men and women on this country.

Penalty rates are a critical pillar in Australia's industrial and employment relations framework and one that Labor has always fought for and will continue to fight for now and into the future. Penalty rates are a lifeline for millions of Australians. And they are not a perk; penalty rates are not a privilege. They are recognition of the sacrifices made by millions of workers—workers who give up their weekends, who give up their night, who give up their public holidays and who give up their precious time with their families, with their loved ones, in order to keep our great country running. This is the retail worker who opens up the shop on a Sunday. It's a cafe worker who's serving you your coffee. It's the nurse working on Christmas and New Year's Day. And it's the aged-care worker who, on Anzac Day, is looking after our most vulnerable.

For many, especially our young people, penalty rates can be the difference between scraping by and saving for a better future for themselves and for their family. Yet, time and time again, election after election, debate after debate, we have seen attempts by some to undermine and to cut penalty and overtime rates, and that is a shame. It is often under the disguise of workplace modernisation and workplace flexibility. But let's call this out for what it is. It's the erosion of dignity. It's the calculated effort to weaken the value of the worker, to strip away compensation for unsociable hours and to shift the balance further in favour of profit and further away from people.

The economic arguments made by those seeking to cut or to slash penalty rates are flawed at best. They say cutting penalty rates will create more jobs, but we know it doesn't. They say it'll help small business. Well, we know it won't. And they say workers will benefit in the long run. Well, no they won't. What happens when you cut penalty rates? It means the working men and women of Australia have less money in their pockets. They spend less at their local cafe. They delay filling that prescription. They cancel a class. They cancel a dental check-up. They cancel a trip to see family. The economy slows, not because of this conjured-up concept that people are lazy but because they're stretched too thin. Wage-led growth is not some abstract economic theory; it's common sense. When working people earn a decent living they often spend that money in their communities. They stimulate demand. They keep our local businesses afloat. And yes, they pay tax—supporting the very services that we all rely on: our schools, our hospitals and our transport systems. They buy coffee. They buy burgers and meals at our local restaurants.

Conversely, when wages stagnate and when penalty rates are stripped away from workers, what we see is a hollowing out of demand, an increase in casualisation and a dangerous widening of the inequality gap. Penalty rates also matter for productivity too, a major focus of the Albanese Labor government in this term, because when you pay people fairly they stay in their employment, they show up, they learn and they do more. They become experienced. They become dependable. They become proud of the work that they turn up to do. That's how you build a productive workforce, not by slashing the pay and churning through underpaid staff like they're disposable.

Young Australians are particularly vulnerable to these attacks on penalty rates and overtime rates. Let's remember they are overrepresented in sectors like hospitality and retail, which are among some of the lowest paid in our economy. Stripping penalty rates from young workers is more than just unfair; it's short sighted, and it is economically reckless. How can they save for a home? How can they plan for a life, when their income is subject to the whims of a workplace deal or a regulatory backflip? We should not be building a future that asks the next generation to accept less—less pay, less stability, less opportunity than the one before them.

The Labor Party stands for fairness—we always have. It's in our DNA. We believe that workers should not have to fight for the crumbs at the end of the table. They deserve a seat at that table. They deserve pay that reflects not just the hours that they work but the hours that they sacrifice: it's the birthdays, the barbecues, the weekends away. It is the time with their children that they are sacrificing.

Penalty rates are about justice. They are about balance. Above all, they are about respect for time, for effort and are for the people who carry the weight of this country on their backs every single day, every minute of every hour. So, to those who seek to abolish or those that seek to diminish or those that seek to block penalty rates, like we saw the shadow minister do yesterday, I say this: you aren't pursuing reform; you are pursuing regression. You are not supporting small business; you are punishing workers. You are not modernising this economy; you are eroding its very foundations of fairness and of equality.

Let us be clear here today. The Australia we should all be fighting for is one where work is valued, effort is rewarded and no-one is left behind simply because they don't work Monday to Friday, nine to five. That is why this government, the Albanese Labor government, will always defend penalty rates, whether it be in this chamber or out in our community. We will always fight to secure and safeguard penalty rates. We will stand with every nurse, every retail assistant and every shiftworker who simply wants to be paid fairly for the time that they sacrifice, because, in the Labor Party, we don't just talk about supporting workers; we act.

In closing, to outline the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025, it adds a new section to the act, 135A, to establish a clear principle requiring that, when exercising its powers to make, vary or revoke modern awards, the Fair Work Commission must ensure that specified penalty or overtime rates are not reduced, and:

… modern awards do not include terms that substitute employees' entitlements to receive penalty rates or overtime rates where those terms would have the effect of reducing the additional remuneration … any employee would otherwise receive.

The bill will commence the day after it receives royal assent, reflecting the government's election commitment to move quickly to protect penalty rates and overtime rates for Australia's lowest-paid workers. It will ensure award-reliant workers continue to be fairly compensated for working overtime; unsocial, irregular or unpredictable hours; weekends, public holidays or shifts.

The bill preserves the commission's existing powers under section 144 to insert flexibility terms into its awards. That allows employers and employees to enter into individual flexibility arrangements, including to vary penalty and overtime rates, as long as the existing legislated safeguard of ensuring they are better-off compared to the standard terms is met. The bill also preserves the commission's existing powers under section 160 of the act to vary a modern award to remove any ambiguity or uncertainty, or to correct an error. The safeguards in the enterprise bargaining framework will remain unchanged, and parties would still be able to bargain at the enterprise level to reduce existing penalty rates and overtime rates so long as the commission is satisfied the enterprise agreement meets the better off overall test.

Finally, this is a bill that goes to the heart of what Labor values are—and that is ensuring that penalty rates and overtime rates are protected. It is ensuring that we protect the fairness, equality and dignity of all workers right across this country, not just on the New South Wales Central Coast but right across New South Wales and right across Australia. I know that as the federal member for Robertson I will continue to defend that, and I know that everyone on this side of the chamber will continue to defend penalty rates. We know from the shenanigans that were undertaken yesterday by the shadow minister that the Liberal Party really don't have any concept of what workers' dignity or effort is. All they do is simply talk; they don't act. That's what the Labor government does here on this side—act in the best interests of working Australians.

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