Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this important legislation, the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025, which gives action to a critical election commitment of our government. I wanted to start with a local person in my community who will be directly affected by this. Her name is Elissa. She's 43 years old. She has a daughter, and she's worked at a major supermarket in my community for 18 years. During that time, she's missed out on being there for her daughter at nights, after school and on the weekend. She needed to work those hours for the extra pay the penalty rates provided.

She was not there to help her daughter with homework; she was not there to read to her or to tuck her into bed at night. Her daughter missed out on playing sports and other activities of an afternoon or weekend because her mum simply had to work. It also affected her daughter's wellbeing as her mum was not around for her, because her mum had to work those long hours on the evenings and on the weekend. She said that she often went to work when she was sick because, if she stayed home sick, she would lose her penalty rates.

Another worker in my electorate, who is another woman and also a young person, is Emily. She's 27 years old, and she works at a major retail outlet. She said she's currently expecting her first little girl in the midst of moving houses, and on her normal rates it's a struggle to be able to afford the basic necessities. But, with penalty rates, they let her breathe. It gives her room to be able to save a little for her bubba and to help her move to make sure that, as she says, her new little family have a roof over their heads. It also helps in times when the bills pile up and when costs of rent and rego are due, and she said penalty rates help her and other people like her not just financially but with their mental health and wellbeing too. She said people make the sacrifice to work the extra day or extra hours to be able to breathe and relax and to be able to share a dinner with friends and not have to worry about the bills.

That's why this legislation is important, that's why we committed to it in the election campaign and that's why we're making sure that it goes through the House now so that workers, as soon as five o'clock tomorrow night, might know that these penalty rates and overtime rates are protected. In simple terms, the bill adds a new section, 135A, to the act to establish a clear principle that, when exercising its powers to make, vary or revoke modern awards, the Fair Work Commission must ensure the specified penalty of overtime rates are not reduced and that modern awards do not include terms that substitute employees' entitlements to receive penalty or overtime rates where those terms would have the effect of reducing the additional remuneration any employee would otherwise receive.

The timing is really critical. It's important because this bill will commence the day after it receives royal assent, reflecting our government's election commitment to move quickly to protect penalty and overtime rates for Australia's lowest paid workers, including Emily who's expecting her new baby in my community. It'll make a real difference, a tangible difference. As I've just said, it'll give people the time to breathe, to be able to enjoy their families, to feel supported, to have stability and to know that they're safe. It will make sure award-reliant workers continue to be fairly compensated for working overtime, for working unsocial hours and for working irregular or unpredictable hours, weekends, public holidays or shifts, as so many people do in regional economies around the country that are underpinned by retail, tourism and hospitality, like my region on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

The bill preserves the commission's existing powers under section 144 to insert flexibility terms into awards and allow employers and employees to enter into individual flexibility arrangements, including to vary penalty and overtime rates, as long as the existing legislated safeguard of making sure they are, importantly, better off compared to the standard terms is met. It's worth noting the safeguards in the enterprise bargaining framework remain unchanged. Parties will 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.

This bill strengthens the existing protections by preventing the commission from making or varying award terms where they reduce an overtime rate or penalty rate or substitute an overtime rate or penalty rate where it has the effect of reducing the take-home pay attributable to the overtime rates or penalty rates any employee would otherwise receive. This is so important. It matters to so many people and families in regional communities like mine who, as I just mentioned, are relying on this to be able to meet their bills, to have some time with family and to be able to prepare for their growing family.

Importantly, this bill will provide stronger protection than the status quo because the principle is applied over and above the commission's consideration of the modern award objectives, preventing award variations that have the effect of reducing penalty rates and overtime rates. The test applies to the additional remuneration that any employee would otherwise receive, meaning the provision cannot be in a modern award if there is evidence a single employee would be worse off. As the Prime Minister has said so often, no-one will be worse off and no-one will be left behind.

People might ask: why is this change needed? It's very evident why this change is needed. It's clear in the household budgets of people and families right across the country. We have seen a sustained effort from certain employers to roll up penalty rates and overtime rates into a single rate of pay, leaving some employees worse off. The Fair Work Commission is right now considering proposals from employers in the retail, clerical and banking sectors to cut the penalty rates of lower-paid workers who rely on modern awards. This bill—and this is why it's been introduced to the House today and why we are moving on it swiftly—will make sure that, in applications like these before the commission at the moment, no worker will see their pay packet reduced. The bill also seeks to protect Australia's low-paid workers from future wage cuts, something that we are all committed to.

As I said, there is an urgency. This is something that is a top priority for our government. It's something that we committed to in the election campaign. It's something that we're doing right now in this first sitting fortnight because some employers in the retail, clerical and banking sectors have made applications to the commission to trade away the penalty rates of lower-paid workers and leave some workers worse off. That's why we want to see this legislation passed as soon as possible—so that the commission is able to apply this principle in considering those proposals.

Of course, we've already seen the shadow minister come out criticising these laws. We all know the coalition doesn't believe in protecting workers' wages or upholding the award safety net and doesn't really recognise the other benefits of this to people's wellbeing with that certainty, stability and financial security it gives to people and families.

I need to be really clear. This legislation is aimed at protecting existing penalty rates and overtime rates. Enterprise bargaining remains a key pathway for employers to achieve flexibility and productivity gains rather than relying on the erosion of the minimum safety net for wages and conditions. The bill introduces a high-level principle, not a prescriptive rule, making it simple, fair and workable. Penalty rates and overtime rates are fundamental entitlements in modern awards that must be preserved. I note in the chamber is my colleague and assistant minister the member for Cooper, who has dedicated so much of her working life to these principles, advocating for them and upholding them.

I'm so proud to stand alongside colleagues like the member for Cooper whilst we debate this legislation.

As Minister Rishworth has made clear, this bill does not impose any additional costs or red tape and does not force employers to bargain. As I said, enterprise bargaining remains a key pathway for employers to directly negotiate with employees—and their unions, importantly. I want to recognise the HSU, the union that I belong to, that stands up for and advocates for some of the lowest paid workers that do such vital work in our communities and also the SDA and their members for the work that they do in retail and hospitality in communities like mine.

In concluding, we were clear back in 2023—when we requested the commission commence a modern award review—as we are now, that those efforts to make the awards easier to use should not be at the expense of workers' entitlements. This legislation importantly builds on our strong track record of achievement in our first term, including advocating to the Fair Work Commission for minimum and award wage rises every single year since we were first elected in 2022; embedding gender equality and job security as new Fair Work Act objects; banning pay-secrecy clauses; criminalising intentional wage theft; stopping the underpayment of workers through the use of labour-hire loopholes; introducing world-leading minimum standards for road-transport workers; and ending the forced permanent-casual loophole, providing a proper pathway to conversion for casuals who want it. I know many people that I worked with as a pharmacist who do such important work in communities and who have been able to benefit from many of these changes. We've given workers a right to clock off, the right to disconnect. It's so important for people's mental health and wellbeing in our digitally connected lives.

I commend the bill to the House and look forward the tangible difference it will make—the real meaningful difference it will make—to people and families in my community on the Central Coast of New South Wales and right around the country. I also look forward to welcoming Minister Rishworth to my electorate next week to meet with local workers who will directly benefit from this reform. Thank you.

See this speech in context