Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Despite all my years in this place, it never ceases to amaze me that some of the rhetoric we hear in these debates inflames uncertainty, fear and despair amongst people who might be driving along listening to this conversation—and there's so much of it that's nonsensical and absolutely totally incorrect. You'd think that contributions in this place would be directed at the intent of this place's existence—to serve the Australian people. Instead, we listen to diatribes that attack unions.

Acting Deputy President Sterle, it's no surprise to you, as a very significant leader in the union movement yourself before you came to this place, and with your continuing association with the Transport Workers Union, that unions do very different things in different communities. I'm very, very proud to be associated with the SDA union, which is affectionately called 'the shoppies union'. What we're discussing here in this legislation goes directly to people who are in a shop right now serving somebody, at 7.30 at night—and they'll still be serving them down at Coles Manuka at 10 o'clock tonight. And they're working those hours at penalty rates because they need the money for their family, their studies and their future. They are putting themselves out. They are working unsociable hours to contribute to our community, to the wealth of the nation, to the success of enterprise in our country and to their future through gaining wages that reflect the unsociable nature of the hours they're operating.

I'm sure you've worked a few unsociable hours yourself, Acting Deputy President Sterle. I certainly have, particularly as a retail worker when Friday night trading came into New South Wales. Happily, I was a member of the SDA, in my years of training to be a teacher, and they represented me. So instead of all of this union bashing nonsense that I have to put up with from those opposite—who simply don't understand the moral, the spiritual and the physical and practical need of having representatives for workers—I stand here in concert with you and others who want to serve the Australian people, and as a member of the Labor Party here in this place, to say that this bill, the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025, should pass. This bill is a fair movement towards protecting the rights for proper payment for people who are working unsociable hours.

Might I say that it's not a new thing that I'm standing up here and doing—defending unions, defending Australian workers and defending decent small businesses who pay properly, who don't need legislation to make them pay their superannuation guarantee and who don't need a law to actually pay proper penalty rates. These are people who want to employ people, grow their business and do it the right way. They're on our side as well. They don't want to be undercut by the shysters who take away superannuation, decide whether they pay it or not is optional for them. They are people who say: 'Penalty rates? You should just be grateful you got a job, mate. Show up unsociable hours. I don't care about your family. I don't care that you've got an eight-year-old at home unsupervised.' That's the kind of situation that is happening in our country, and we saw it documented in the work and care report. I see Senator Pocock here. Women, predominantly women, in the retail sector in particular were saying they had managers who were so overblown in their sense of self-importance that they refused to adjust shifts to acknowledge the reality that the women had children that they needed to care for at home. The managers just didn't care.

That's why, under the Albanese Labor government, we are rectifying a whole litany of failures with the objective of reducing Australian people's wages in relation to the cost of living. I've sat in this chamber when the finance minister for the Liberal and National parties actually said that low wages were a design feature of how they were going to run the economy. He said it out loud. I'm pretty sure he didn't realise what he was saying, but he actually belled the cat, and we have, on record, that that's what he wanted—low wages. The Albanese government is about fair and decent wages and conditions for all Australian workers.

That's why this bill should pass. It's a bill that will protect the penalty rates of 2.6 million modern-award-reliant workers in this country. These are our fellow citizens, serving the public, in hospitality and retail predominantly, working irregular hours, unsociable hours. For that, Australians designed a compact and the concept of penalty rates—some compensation for stopping your social interaction in the normal hours. The people who are going to oppose it, for goodness sake, I bet aren't working on a Sunday. I bet they're not down at Coles at Manuka putting in their hours at 10 o'clock at night. Maybe they didn't ever have to. Maybe they have no compassion or empathy for the Australian people. I cannot understand why anyone would vote against this bill. Anyone in their right mind, anyone with a sense of fairness and decency, would support what this bill will do. This benefits 2.6 million of our fellow Australians who rely on penalty rate entitlements to help them make ends meet, to pay their bills and to support their families. They're counting on us to deliver for them.

The vehicle that allows the government to make these changes is the Fair Work Act. It was written in 2009, and I know a lot of people compare the technology of today back to 2009. It was a different kind of phone that we were on, then. It was very different in shape and capacity, along with so much in our world that's changed. That's why amendments to legislation occur—because the world changes. This amendment to the Fair Work Act 2009 will lock in the protections that are necessary to ensure that penalty rates and overtime rates in modern awards cannot be cut or reduced. Very importantly, when bargaining is going on—are we going to raise wages or change things in our workplace?—we want to make sure that these penalty rates and overtime rates cannot be traded away for terms that leave workers with less take-home pay. This is essentially a protection against those who would rip off their own workforce by taking money from the workers so that they can just have some more profit themselves and ignore the impact of penalty rates and overtime on the sustainability of the finances of decent working Australians.

One of the challenges that this amendment to the Fair Work Act 2009 seeks to address is that the system as it stands allows penalty rates and overtime rates to be rolled up into a single rate of pay, leaving many workers worse off. We've seen this practice occur. When protections are weak, as they were in 2017, penalty rates are cut, and the people who felt the impact of that during the Liberal-National governments were workers in retail and in fast food. They still have that flashing light going on the main drag at Kincumber, when I drive by at 11 o'clock, and are still serving Australian people at that time. We have all of these convenience opportunities in our modern economy, and people who are working in retail, fast food, hospitality and pharmacies provide a vital service to us. When you need that bottle of baby Panadol at nine o'clock at night and you drive 25 kilometres to get it, somebody is there keeping those doors open so that you can get what you need. We not only want these services; we need them for the workforce that is moving around our country.

Right now, employers in retail, clerical and banking sectors actually have cases before the Fair Work Commission. That is the commission that oversees the Fair Work Act and the rules that apply. Sadly, there are employers in the clerical sector, in the banking sector and in the retail sector who want to erode penalty rates. With the passage of this bill, the Albanese Labor government will prevent that from occurring. I guess it comes down to your fundamental belief about what penalty rates actually are. Some people just think they are a bonus. I don't understand the mentality of some people who don't want to work those hours but think that it's okay for other people to do it and that those people shouldn't receive any recompense. We are firmly of the view that there needs to be a recognition, not just as in, 'Thank you very much for staying open,' but in payment for the unsociable hours that are worked by retail and hospitality staff, by shift workers and by essential services staff, who keep this amazing country that we call home running. People who work on weekends and public holidays, people who work stacking the shelves through the night, and people who are up very early in the morning to keep everything moving around in our economy—they don't receive penalty rates as a bonus; they receive them because of the nature of the hours that they are working. Award-reliant employees who are impacted by cuts to penalty rates are disproportionately women, and they are also young people under 35, part-time workers and casuals—all of these people who are often in precarious employment and who stitch together enough hours in response to the economy in their area. They rely heavily on the extra that they get when they put themselves and their families out to work at unsociable hours.

This is a very simple, fair and workable bill. It is going to provide clarity without complexity for those who seek to use the Fair Work Act.

The reforms that we're proposing here, and that I hope the Senate will support, do not act retrospectively. They will allow employers to continue to meet their current award obligations and nothing more. I want to reassure people who are aware of, understand and are interested in the enterprise bargaining frameworks that enterprise bargaining remains available for businesses seeking flexibility and productivity gains, including arrangements on penalty rates. But that will always occur with the oversight of to guarantee fairness in such an outcome, because, sadly, there are just far too many shonks out there, who, for some reason, believe their right to abuse an Australian worker is some sort of God-given right. In fact, it's almost this sort of ascendancy script: 'Well, I'm the boss, so I'll take all the profit. You're just my lackey, and you don't deserve fair pay.' How do people sleep at night when they diminish their fellow Australians in such an egregious way?

I wish it wasn't the case, but sadly what I've described is a reality in certain places—not in every workplace but in far too many. That is why we have to have this legislation—to stop the shysters, to stop the shonks and to stand up for ordinary hard-working Australians who don't want anything more than a fair go and need a government that understands that and will put in place the necessary guardrails through legislation to ensure that people get a fair go, nothing more, nothing less. I say to Australians: if you work late nights, if you work early mornings, weekends and public holidays, you deserve a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and this bill ensures that for you. (Time expired)