Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, there is much commentary about the world being a 24/7 place, and indeed it is true that it's busier than when you and I went to school. But let me tell you what hasn't changed: school hours. This goes to the very heart of penalty rates and what this government is doing. It's about children and it's about families. When kids start going to school 24/7, maybe the world truly will be a 24/7 place. But at the moment children still go to school Monday to Friday from nine to three, or thereabouts. That is what is so important about penalty rates for working people who sacrifice that time with their family, with their children, on weekends. They know that to put bread on the table and to buy shoes for their children to wear to school they have to go to work on Saturday and Sunday, and they should be rewarded for that. In my electorate of Paterson, one in five local workers work in industries where penalty rates are being cut, and this Sunday they will be cut again, thanks to this government. While this government wants to give big business an $80 billion tax cut—let that sink in: $80 billion—they are taking $77 out of the pay packets of the hard workers of Paterson. I say to this Prime Minister: shame on you, Prime Minister. You are refusing to stand up for the families and the children of Paterson. Shame on you.