Penalty Rates

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:24): Penalty rates, in my view, form a critical part of the income of many workers: nurses; police; retail and hospitality workers; manufacturing workers; people who work in services, both general and personal; health workers; pharmacy workers; workers in tourism and transport; fast-food workers; and emergency services workers, just to name a few. All these workers rely on penalty payments as part of their take-home income.

In my view, people who work unsocial hours and who also work on weekends should be compensated for working those hours. I understand that former Family First SA senator Bob Day wanted to get rid of penalty rates for workers in small businesses completely. He also campaigned for and supported legislation getting rid of the minimum wage for young workers.

Deputy Speaker, you will remember that you and I had the honour of being elected in this place at about the same time as the Hon. Nick Xenophon in the Legislative Council. I have had a long association with the Hon. Nick Xenophon. I was involved in student politics around the same time as Nick Xenophou, as he was called in those days. He was the editor of On Dit and in the Liberal Club and I was the editor of Empire Times and in the Labor Club. Later, he, as a lawyer, and I, as a union advocate, worked together on the same side on a variety of IR and EO matters.

I remember Mr Xenophon MLC being very active in supporting legislation to reform industrial relations legislation, the most notable being the Dust Diseases Act, which is still with us in South Australia. This progressive industrial agenda, in my view, has been continued by the Hon. John Darley in the Legislative Council. He is also a very proud member of the Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation.

Up until recently, I have to say I was surprised and disappointed by the position the now Senator Xenophon has been taking on penalty rates in the retail and catering sector, as well as his views on penalty rates with regard to small business. Looking very quickly at his position in the federal parliament, I understand from Hansard on 16 August 2012 that he introduced a private Senator's bill, the Fair Work Amendment (Small Business—Penalty Rates Exemption) Bill 2012.

The purpose of this bill, as I understand it, was to exempt small businesses employing fewer than 20 persons in the retail and catering sector from paying penalty rates, except where the worker has worked more than 10 hours in one day or 38 hours in one week. In his second reading explanation, Senator Xenophon said:

This bill is an attempt to balance the need for penalty rates and the strain they are placing on small businesses.

On 27 June 2013, there was debate on the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013, which was an ALP government bill. The government was attempting to address workplace bullying, provide more flexibility in taking parental leave, provide the right to flexible working conditions and enhance consultation requirements and a few other matters. Despite the good pro-worker measures in the bill, which passed both houses, Senator Xenophon used his second reading speech to reiterate his call for reducing job-killing penalty rates for small business.

On 1 October 2014, in debate on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 1) Bill, Senator Xenophon opposed the bill and raised this issue. He said, 'I think we need to have more flexibility on penalty rates for small business.' The list goes on but, in the small amount of time I have available to me, I am pleased to say that the Nick Xenophon Team (now SA-Best) will oppose Sunday penalty rate cuts. The Senator is reported as saying:

The bottom line is none of us want to see workers have their pay cut in an environment where there's low wage growth and an increasing number of people under are wage stress.

Amen!