Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I sought the call earlier in the MPI debate dealing with Spotlight. There is a Spotlight store in Campbelltown in a very prominent location, and my wife regularly shops there. It has been a feature of Campbelltown for a long while, and I was taken aback when I heard what the company had decided to do.

What people are railing against is summed up by the member for Deakin’s speech in the MPI debate. He said, ‘They don’t have to take the contract; they don’t have to take the job.’ This is where this legislation is going. In defence of that, the general manager of marketing at Spotlight said: ‘We’re not writing the legislation. We’re just doing what we’re permitted to do under the new federal laws.’ Spotlight’s defence for eliminating overtime, penalty rates and leave loading is that this federal act says that they can now do it. He is using the same defence as the owners and managers of the Cowra abattoir. As you may recall, they also pointed the finger at this government and said: ‘You people made the legislation. We’re simply following the lead that our legislators have given us.’ It is also interesting that the chief executive of the National Retail Association, far from defending what has occurred at Spotlight, has come out today and said that they applaud what is occurring at Spotlight because that is giving the lead to what other retailers could be doing in this industry.

We have heard all this claptrap that there are going to be more jobs and more flexibility. What there is not going to be is flexibility for people to be able to negotiate these contracts because, as the member for Deakin said, they either accept the terms or do not take the job. In Spotlight’s case, you can find the actual template of the contract on Spotlight’s website, and there is no negotiation. If you are a young person or a woman seeking work, either you put your name on that contract and accept the terms in that contract or you do not take the job.