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

At the risk of repeating myself, the bill is not retrospective in its operation. Any decision that the commission makes based on an application to vary the awards would operate from the date of that decision rather than looking backwards. It's not retrospective in the sense of changing people's entitlements from a year ago or two years ago. It's about changing the existing terms in that award, and that change would operate prospectively rather than retrospectively. People can and do seek to make changes to award conditions every day of the week in the Fair Work Commission.