Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for his circular questions. Ultimately, the proposition he's putting forward is that penalty rates shouldn't be in awards. Effectively, his questions about the impost that penalty rates are on HR departments, as well as his proposition about how bad penalty rates are and how difficult they make things, go to the substance of this bill.

The basic question in the amended bill before the House is: do you support protecting penalty rates and overtime rates in the award safety net or not? That is a simple proposition, and all the scenarios he's put to me in the questions suggest that, deep down in his heart, he would love nothing more than to strip penalty and overtime rates from all awards and every workplace in this country. That is a shameful proposition. If that is what is in his heart of hearts, he should have the guts to get up to the dispatch box and say he's opposing this bill. Is he going to oppose this bill? Does he oppose this bill? He said that he agrees with penalty rates, but, in the proposition of every single one of his questions, he has argued against penalty rates and against overtime, saying that they make it complex.

Is it his proposition that no small business in this country should ever have to pay penalty rates? That is what he's putting to the House. I will answer that question. I disagree with that proposition. I think hardworking Australians deserve penalty rates, particularly those who rely on the safety net and the modern award. So I'm going to repeat this for the shadow minister, because he's a little slow at catching up. This provision does not require any extra impost on small business. There is no extra impost whatsoever. What this provision does is protect what is currently happening. So I will repeat it again for him. If you're a small business and you pay under the award and you're paying penalty rates, then you just keep doing it.

If his proposition is that that is terrible for small business, then he is putting to the House that he disagrees with paying penalty rates. He doesn't support penalty rates. There's no other conclusion that you can make. The shadow minister has got to have the courage to either get up, vote against this bill and say he disagrees with penalty rates or actually back what the Australian people agreed to at the election, and that is the protection of their penalty rates.

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