Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

We're up to the beginning of volume 2, Minister Watt, so we won't be too much longer—just kidding. I'm going to sum up and we'll be done. The coalition supports penalty and overtime rates and the mechanism that they provide for additional remuneration for employees who work overtime, for employees who work weekends, for employees who work, what we call, unsocial or irregular or unpredictable hours. The coalition also supports the agency and freedom of employees to negotiate with employers, in good faith, terms and conditions that suit their respective needs, priorities and interests, and these are not 'one size fits all'.

At a time when Australia's productivity continues to decline and when the burden of excessive regulation has been recognised by the government as contributing to Australia's problematic economic performance, our problematic productivity, these new regulations and imposts on small businesses, in particular, should give us cause to pause and carefully assess and weigh things up. Following the Senate inquiry into this legislation, the evidence provided a clear divide between the submissions that support the bill as a symbolic protection of penalty rates, from the union movement, and business and legal experts, who warn that there may well be some unintended consequences here, including compromising the independence of the Fair Work Commission, impacts on flexibility and choice, and duplication. Coalition senators remain concerned, as noted in our dissenting report, that in its current form the bill does not achieve, in a practical sense, the government's stated intent of safeguarding penalty rates. It is important that we point that out, because that is the very purpose of the Senate committee process, of the scrutiny of that process—to consider and assess proposed legislation and to point out to government any potential issues to ensure that the laws that leave this place are fit for purpose and do the job that they are meant to do. Rather, we believe that this legislation risks creating additional challenges for business whilst limiting employees' ability to make arrangements that best suit their own circumstances. We coalition senators once again affirm our support for penalty rates and overtime for those that work unsociable hours.