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

Thank you, Senator, for your contribution in this debate. I think it's worth my putting on the record a couple of points to address matters that were raised in the debate yesterday. It is very clear from the debate that we've seen over the last few hours that the Liberal Party just doesn't support penalty rates. They say they do, but actions speak louder than words.

The main reason I want to make this contribution today is to clarify some matters that have been reported in the media today. We have seen some members of the opposition—no-one in this chamber—seek to misrepresent what this bill is about and also to misrepresent comments that I made in the chamber yesterday, so I think it's worth putting on the record what will actually occur as a result of this bill.

Existing award arrangements will not be overridden by this bill. This bill is not retrospective in its operation, despite the claims from some that it is. The bill applies a simple new principle to award variation applications made by unions or employers from the time the bill commences. It's not going to be making changes that apply retrospectively, like most pieces of legislation; it will take effect from the time the bill commences, and the matters contained in the bill will take effect from the time the bill commences. That is a future date—most likely, I'm guessing, the date of royal assent. These provisions will not be applied retrospectively. When I say that it will apply a new principle to applications made by unions or employers, that includes applications that are not yet determined by the Fair Work Commission at the time the bill commences, such as those in the retail, banking and clerks award cases, as well as future applications made by parties.

This new principle will, very simply, prevent the reduction of a penalty rate—for example, from 200 per cent of the base rate of pay to 150 per cent of the base rate of pay—and prevent the Fair Work Commission making exemption rates or rolled-up rates that do not properly compensate employees for the penalty and overtime rates they have forgone. The new principle applies to awards only, not individual flexibility agreements or enterprise bargaining agreements. Employers and unions have a longstanding right to be able to apply to vary awards in line with the law of the day. The bill does not change this. The opposition and employer groups seem to be claiming that the fact that we have not taken away this fundamental feature of the award system makes the bill retrospective in its operation. This is simply incorrect. Employees who have existing rolled up rates under awards or agreements will continue to be paid those rates after this bill commences. Despite claims to the contrary, we have not removed flexibility from awards. Employers will still be able to apply to the Fair Work Commission to vary awards and to include flexible exemption rates and rolled up rates. All that changes is that the Fair Work Commission must ensure the amount the employee is paid under that exemption rate or rolled-up rate properly covers the penalty rates and overtime rates that they would otherwise have received. We have also not amended the provisions in the Fair Work Act that relate to annualised wage arrangements. Annualised wage arrangements will still be permitted under awards. This bill does not impose any new obligations on employers, and therefore no impact assessment is necessary. Of course we will monitor the operation and implementation of this new principle in the same way we monitor the operation and implementation of all new workplace relations provisions.

As I said yesterday and as I said during the election when we made this commitment, this is a commitment from the Albanese Labor government to ensure that penalty rates cannot be cut and that workers can't go backwards under awards compared to where they stand at the moment. I commend the bill to the chamber.