Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is true. I did not have a choice. That is absolutely true.

We on this side understand that that $77 is not for any sort of luxury. We understand it is to help pay the power bill, to help buy the kids' school uniforms, maybe to help send the kids on an excursion. I was on the Labor Party's Fair Work Taskforce and was privileged to travel around Tasmania to hear from people from my home state—also that of Senator Duniam, and I think Senator Whish-Wilson might have heard some of this too—how much of an impact a cut to penalty rates will have on people. As Senator Marshall said, people do not choose to work weekends to make a fortune. A lot of people work weekends because otherwise they would not get the job. Part of getting the job is: 'You can work in my restaurant but I need you to work Saturdays,' or, 'I need you work Sundays,' or, 'I need you to work after hours in unsociable hours.' People do that because the extra bit of money they get helps them pay their bills. It helps them to have some dignity. That is really important to people, and something those on the other side do not often think about.

The cuts to penalty rates will obviously have a detrimental effect on the wider economy; that is just common sense. If you reduce the incomes of 700,000 people, there will be less money for people in the community to spend, and family budgets will be even tougher. We have thousands of people who are already doing it tough because this government do not really care about people with lower incomes. This money is not banked until it becomes trillions of dollars. It is certainly not sent off to the Cayman Islands, for example. It is not invested in shares. It is money that is used every single day to help people live to a standard of living that I doubt any, even at the lowest level, of those on the other side have ever lived to. I doubt they have ever had to struggle. I would be surprised if their penalty rates did not fund their overseas holidays, if ever they worked in a job that had penalty rates—probably while they were living at home being looked after very well.

The most cruel thing of all about the penalty rates cut is that it has coincided— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.