Madonna Jarrett (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025. On this side of the House, we will always stand up for working people. At the election, we committed to protecting penalty rates, and now the government is delivering on that promise. If you work weekends, public holidays, early mornings, late nights and rely on penalty rates through the modern award safety net, you deserve to have your penalty wages protected.

This amendment establishes a principle requiring the Fair Work Commission to ensure that penalty and overtime rates are not reduced. This will protect 2.6 million award-reliant workers across the country. We know that award-reliant employees are more likely to be women, work part time, be under the age of 35 and employed on a casual basis. Many workers in my electorate of Brisbane deserve and rely on penalty rates to make ends meet. This includes our proud retail, pharmacy, hospitality, hospital, aged care, casino and airline workers, amongst others.

Many airline workers at Brisbane airport, like Ben, work late nights, weekends and public holidays to connect our community with the rest of the world. Airline workers rely on penalty rates, and Labor's same job, same pay laws saw wages rise by up to $20,000 a year or by 42 per cent for some workers. That's not a small amount of money. But we know that airline companies continue to look for loopholes to undermine this important work.

In Brisbane, hundreds of frontline staff from across the casino industry recently stopped work, many of whom had worked through the toughest period in the industry's recent history, including the regulatory crisis and public scrutiny. Maria, a cleaner for Star, chose to take her first-ever union action by going on strike because reductions to penalty rates would see her $20 worse-off per week.

She said that might not sound like much to many people, but for a cleaner who has to watch every dollar it's a huge impact. I stand with Maria and the United Workers Union members who are still fighting to protect their penalty rates and to be respected at that casino.

As we know, hospitals and aged-care services, like the RBWH in my electorate, take care of our community and they often require staff to work late nights, weekends and public holidays. A paramedic working a typical roster would be roughly $742 worse off over the Easter break without penalty rates. An aged-care worker at a residential facility in Albion working a typical roster would be roughly $620 worse off over the Easter break without penalty rates. This is real money for real people. It's also our bus drivers and train drivers, who transport us across the electorate, who rely on penalty rates. It's workers across the Brisbane community who deserve penalty rates for the essential services they provide to us to make our city operate. Penalty rates are an acknowledgment of the important work of these hard workers in my electorate. They work late nights and on weekends; they have to spend time away from their families and loved ones. I'm proud to be part of a Labor government that continues to support and deliver increased wages and protect penalty rates.

History shows that when the union movement is strong, the working class can prosper. And we have a proud history in Australia of having a strong union movement that has always stood on the right side of history. Unions fought hard for superannuation reforms. They fought for Medicare. They campaigned hard for women to get the right to vote. They made sure that the decriminalisation of abortion was implemented across states and territories. They have long fought for justice for First Nations people and reconciliation. They continue to fight for gender pay equity, and the list goes on.

In the 1940s, it was the union movement that fought and campaigned hard for the introduction of penalty rates. The concept was simple: an understanding and recognition of working particular hours or days during the evenings, weekends, public holidays or in conditions that might be dangerous or unpleasant. Penalty rates arose as part of a broader desire to recognise working people's needs to physically recuperate, spend time with their family and live a life beyond work, and to properly remunerate them for the sacrifice to work inconvenient hours that may take them away from these important friends and family. Penalty rates were created to make sure workers are properly compensated for the sacrifices they make to work these inconvenient times or under certain conditions. Here we are, 80 years later, and the way we work has not changed, and neither should this principle.

But since the 1940s, we've seen successive governments and industry try to take away penalty rates for hardworking Australians. During the recent election campaign, the coalition refused to rule out penalty rate cuts for Australia's lowest-paid workers. And we know the coalition continues to do this; we heard it again earlier today. Peter Dutton voted eight times in parliament in favour of cutting penalty rates. They want cuts to penalty rates for workers, but are happy to support free lunches for bosses. It's a stark difference between a government who wants the economy to work for people and an opposition who continually undermines working people.

We know bosses like to say getting rid of penalty rates will improve productivity, but as the member for Dickson pointed out earlier today a recent study showed no new jobs were created as a result of lower penalty rates. Lowering pay for workers is just a cost-saving exercise to boost business and company profits at the expense of working people. Right now there are submissions before the Fair Work Commission from industry and business associations who want to strip away penalty rates.

The coalition also oversaw stagnation for nearly a decade, which led to inflation rising and left the country with falling real wages. When the Albanese government first came to office, real wages were falling 3.4 per cent and had gone backwards for five consecutive years. Since taking office, the Albanese Labor government has always advocated for wage increases. Their recent submission to the Fair Work expert panel recommending it award an economically sustainable real wage increase was successful.

Penalty rates and wage increases must never go backwards. If they did, it would erode intergenerational fairness and the concept of a fair go for all. As I mentioned in my first speech, restoring intergenerational fairness is a key part of my focus as Brisbane grows over the next decade. This is an issue that is incredibly close to my heart. I saw the firsthand damage when governments, like the conservative Bjelke-Petersen government, sacked and targeted workers, their families and even my community during the SEQEB dispute. That's why I will always stand to protect penalty rates and wage increases. It makes me incredibly proud to be a part of a Labor team and a union movement that continues to lift wages and, therefore, lift all Australians. Change only happens when workers support each other, the union movement is strong, and governments take action to ensure workers are not worse off.

But we know there is more work to do. Working people continue to face cost-of-living pressures, which is why the Albanese Labor government is doing everything it can to help in this regard. Last term, we delivered a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer. We delivered $300 in energy bill relief for every Australian household and $325 for small businesses. We tripled the bulk-billing incentive for people who need to see their GP most often, including pensioners, concession card holders and families with children. We restored bulk-billing for 11 million Australians, creating an additional six million bulk-billed GP visits. We are delivering cheaper medicines by delivering the biggest-ever reduction in the cost of PBS prescriptions and freezing the cost of PBS medicines. We're making hundreds of medicines cheaper for Australians. Labor also cut student debt and made sure that it never grows faster than wages. We delivered fee-free TAFE. We delivered cheaper child care. We delivered real wage increases for Australian workers. Under this government, real wages are growing again and, with our tax cuts, Australians are keeping more of what they earn. Not only have we seen three consecutive pay rises for Australian workers who are on awards but also Labor has delivered pay rises for aged-care and early childhood educators and care workers.

But it doesn't stop there. We will continue to deliver cost-of-living relief for working Australians by delivering new tax cuts for taxpayers, delivering another $150 in energy bill relief, wiping 20 per cent of student debt and strengthening Medicare with more free GP visits and even cheaper medicine. We will make medicine even cheaper so the most you'll pay for a PBS medicine will be just $25 a script. We're making it easier for Australians to get the urgent medical care that they need. Labor will expand its growing network of Medicare urgent care clinics. We've already opened 87 of them across Australia. Labor will now open 50 more, including one in the inner north of Brisbane, in my electorate. We will also make free TAFE permanent. We will continue to deliver affordable child care closer to home. I'd like to also point out that award-reliant employees are more likely to be women. Gender pay equity is something we must continue to strive for, and this government has achieved a lot in this space. Three million Australians, most of whom are women, are already better off, with a 3½ per cent real pay rise delivered on 1 July. These are three million workers across the country—including cleaners, retail workers and early childhood educators—who are benefiting and who make up the essential fabric of our community. These are industries that are traditionally dominated by women and where historically workers have been paid very little. This pay rise is another step towards realising equal pay for women, and I really commend the government for this. We have seen annual real wages grow for 18 months in a row, now, under the Albanese Labor government.

This is a government that is taking real action and supporting working people, their families and all Australians. This is the impact of a long-term Labor government that has worked hard to create the right conditions for sustainable, real wage growth. Fair protections like penalty rates matter most to the people who can least afford to lose out, including young workers, women, casual workers and those in part-time jobs. While I'm in this House, I want to be able to say, 'I made this country better, and I made it better for working people.' Under this Labor government, real wages are up, superannuation is strengthening, inflation is down, unemployment is low and income is growing.

We will always fight to improve the wages and conditions of working people, and that's exactly what this bill does. I commend the bill.

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