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

The bill provides certainty in the sense that it makes clear that penalty rates can't be cut in awards after this is passed. The parliament doesn't ever seek to tell the commission what it must decide on every single case. That's the point of the commission: to weigh up the evidence and apply its discretion.

I remember having a long debate with Senator Cash along similar lines with one of the workplace relations bills that we passed last term, where my answer to many of her questions was, 'It's a matter for the commission.' I'm not sure if she thought that was laughable or horrific; it was her usual mock horror that we're seeing again this week. But that's how it works. The commission has discretion to make decisions. What we're doing here is setting the principle that the commission needs to consider.