Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is telling, isn't it, that the first foray that the new Prime Minister makes into the area of industrial relations is to open up a debate on penalty rates. Here he comes—the Prime Minister who wants to cut penalty rates in this country. The first thing that this Prime Minister said is that the weekend is dead. He pronounced the death of the weekend in this country, and, of course, he said, 'There's a seven-day economy.' There are 4.3 million Australian workers who rely upon penalty rates. What does the Prime Minister think the consequences will be for them if, indeed, the Prime Minister has his way and allows for the slashing of penalty rates in this country? It will be a sad and sorry day in this country if we allow this Prime Minister to set the agenda to slash penalty rates, which will inflict such pain on ordinary working families. Families rely upon those penalty rates to ensure that they can pay for school uniforms, pay the rent, pay the mortgage, pay for the car rego, pay for petrol and make ends meet. In this country, we want to see a fair go. This Prime Minister wants to see the death of the weekend and, indeed, the death of penalty rates. He should reconsider his position and think about sitting down with ordinary workers once in his life.