Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

And some old union official across the chamber laughs and scoffs! Allow me to quote this to the honourable senator:

The result is that most employees in Australia are not paid penalty rates, but are paid more than the base wage. Even though unions don’t like to admit it, many have been involved in these agreements.

I remind honourable senators of the date here: 1991, which was some five years—half a decade—before John Howard was elected to government. It continues:

In 1991 I helped negotiate an agreement with—

wait for it!—

the Shop Assistants Union in South Australia to get rid of the 25 per cent late night penalty rate, the 30 per cent night shift penalty rate, the 25 per cent Saturday morning penalty rate and the 50 per cent Saturday afternoon overtime rate, in exchange for a payment of 5.25 per cent on the weekly wage. It was an agreement that worked well …

In other words, if unions can negotiate away penalty rates that is okay; but how dare individual workers ever think about doing that without the imprimatur of the paternalistic trade union movement!