Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

It's a matter for every business whether they want to enter into an enterprise agreement or not, and, as you know, many businesses choose to pay on the award. All that this will mean is that a small business who currently pays their employees in line with the award today will continue to pay those employees in line with the award tomorrow, when this bill is passed and when it commences. It's just that the award, in the future, won't be able to remove penalty rates. As long as they want to keep paying the award, then that's what they'll do. The kind of businesses that you're talking about, I think, are those who largely pay in line with the award now. As long as they keep doing that, there are no new obligations for them.