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

I made the point earlier that the government's view is that regardless of where someone works, whether they work for a major corporation or a small business, they're entitled to have their penalty rates protected. We're talking about people—typically quite low-income earners, typically women, typically part time or casual workers, typically young people—who work unsociable hours. My family and I, every now and then, like to be able to get a cup of coffee or something on a public holiday, and I feel entirely comfortable with paying a little bit more in order to have that cafe attendant get a bit more in their pocket because they're giving up the opportunity to have that public holiday.

I think that we've got a fundamental difference of opinion about whether there's a new obligation being imposed here or not. What this is about—this point about compliance for small businesses—is that every time award pay rates change, small businesses adjust and pay people the new wage rates. What we're saying here is no different in the sense that this is about preventing the Fair Work Commission from cutting penalty rates. Just as small businesses pay new wage rates when they're handed down by the commission under the award and they follow the award, it's about preventing the commission from doing something, rather than imposing some new obligation on small businesses that they don't already have. It just affects the pay rates that people working in a small business or a big business earn.