Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Senator Watt. Prior to the election, big retailers like Kmart, Big W and Costco, as well as businesses in the clerical and banking sectors, applied to scrap penalty rates for workers earning less than $60,000. This move would have sent Australians' pay packets backwards and meant an overall reduction in their wages of up to $5,000 every year. What steps did the Albanese Labor government take to oppose this application, and what will a re-elected Labor government do to protect workers' wages?

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

Thank you, Senator Polley, who, along with every other Labor senator, has a very proud record of standing up for the penalty rates and wages of Australian workers.

As Senator Polley will remember, in the first term of the Albanese government one of our core aims was to ensure that Australians would earn more and keep more of what they earned. In our first term, the Albanese government delivered landmark workplace relations reforms—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Those opposite still haven't heard the message that Australians want to earn more and keep more of what they earn. In our first term, the Albanese government delivered landmark workplace relations reforms with a clear goal of getting wages moving for Australian workers, and that's exactly what we achieved. We addressed loopholes that undermine principles of fairness and improved access to secure jobs and better pay. We've reinvigorated enterprise bargaining, resulting in more cooperative, productive workplaces. We put gender equality at the heart of the workplace relations framework, helping drive the gender pay gap to its lowest level on record. We improved workplace conditions and protections across the board. In every annual wage review since taking office, we've backed minimum wage increases, with our most recent submission calling for an economically sustainable real wage increase. I'm pleased to see that, from 1 July, minimum wages have increased by 3½ per cent ahead of inflation.

These were significant and important reforms in our first term, but we know that there's more to do. Right now, the modern awards safety net can be undermined. Currently, penalty rates and overtime rates in modern awards can be rolled up into a single rate of pay that leaves some employees worse off, and there are currently cases on foot where employers in the retail, clerical and banking sectors are seeking to trade away the penalty rates of lower paid workers on awards. Our government doesn't think that's fair. It's why we intervened in those cases to block that from happening, and it's why, just today, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister Rishworth, has introduced legislation to protect penalty rates. We expect to see the whole House support that. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, first supplementary?

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is understood that penalty rates are a vital part of the modern awards safety net, which supports some of the lowest paid workers in our country. Why do penalty rates and overtime rates matter so much—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senators, particularly those on my left, there needs to be silence while the question is asked. Senator Polley, please continue.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why do penalty and overtime rates matter so much to these workers, and why is it so important that the Albanese Labor government's legislation is passed without delay?

Honourable senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm not quite sure, after I asked for silence, why there wasn't silence.

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

I'm not surprised to see members of the opposition moaning and groaning about this topic, because we know they've never met a worker who depends on their penalty rates to pay their bills. We know that they still haven't heard the message that Australians voted for a government that ensured that they are earning more and keeping more of what they earn and that they rejected an opposition that was about cutting pay and making work more insecure.

I've got some news for you: penalty rates and overtime rates matter to working Australians. Employees relying on penalty rates are more likely to be women, to work part time, to be under the age of 35 and to be employed on a casual basis. We are talking about people like Emily, a retail worker from New South Wales, expecting her—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Oh, you're groaning. You don't want to hear about workers who depend on their penalty rates? How disrespectful. You don't want to hear about people like Emily, a retail worker who says that her penalty rates—

Opposition senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I foolishly thought that, if I asked for silence for the question, I might get silence for the answer. Obviously no-one got that message. There needs to be silence.

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

Labor wants to hear from people like Emily, who says that her penalty rates let her save a little for her bubba, help her move and ensure that her new little family has a roof over their heads. We're standing up for people like Emily; you might not. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, second supplementary?

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is clear that protecting penalty rates is very important to millions of Australian workers. During the election campaign, the Albanese Labor government made protecting penalty rates a key pillar of our pitch to the Australian people for re-election. Minister, can you outline the response to that and why the government has taken this approach?

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

Thanks Senator Policy—Polley.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

And she is full of policy—policy that supports working people in Australia! Like Senator Polley and everyone else over here, during the campaign I was incredibly fortunate to join retail, banking and hospitality workers outside the Stafford shopping centre on Brisbane's north side to launch this policy on behalf of the government. I can assure you that the announcement was well received by those workers and was quite obviously well received by the Australian voting public. At the time, it was clear that the coalition took a different view on penalty rates.

Former Liberal leader Peter Dutton—remember him—confirmed it when he said:

We don't propose any departure from the current arrangements.

The person over there who kept predicting we'd return to the Dark Ages was proven wrong by the Australian people.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Minister Wong?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During both the primary and the first supplementary I did let it go, but Senator Cash might just want to draw a breath on the interjections while Minister Watt is answering.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I live rent free in his mind, Penny.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I need all senators to refrain from interjecting, please. Minister Watt, please continue.

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

It would appear that, from the coalition's statements, they still haven't heard the message from the election. We saw, this morning, shadow minister Tim Wilson—remember him?—call our plan to protect penalty rates 'distressing and disturbing'. The Liberals haven't changed. They haven't heard the message that people want to earn more. (Time expired)