Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth on penalty rates legislation and biosecurity changes for US beef

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth speaks on legislation being introduced on penalty rates, and shares her position on Australia’s lifting of biosecurity restrictions on US beef.

Transcript

00:00Well at the moment we have an award system that is the safety net for what people should

00:07get paid at work and of course there are penalty rates and overtime to compensate people for

00:13working whether it's long hours or irregular hours or on weekends.

00:19What we want to do is make sure that the safety net is strengthened and protected so that

00:26no one can lose their penalty rates or overtime and be made worse off.

00:32Of course many Australians rely on penalty rates and overtime to make up their take home

00:37pay.

00:38We want to make sure that it's clear in the legislation that no one should have their

00:43take home pay cut by reducing penalty rates and overtime.

00:47So you don't accept that sort of idea or the proposal being looked at at fair work that

00:52would mean that some workers could accept perhaps a slightly higher salary in trade I

00:59guess for penalty rates on weekends and public holidays.

01:03Certainly at workplaces people do sit down and talk about how to accept higher pay and

01:10what those trade-offs might be.

01:12They should be done through enterprise bargaining because through enterprise bargaining you can

01:17discuss the employers and unions and employees can discuss what arrangements best fit them

01:23and then they go to the commission and they're subject to a better off overall test.

01:28What I'm concerned about is the safety net that so many people do rely on.

01:33If penalty rates and overtimes are eroded in that then there will be potentially workers made worse off

01:41and have their take home pay cut. So the best place to look at how you provide flexibility

01:48and roll up your penalty rates for a higher rate of pay should be done through enterprise

01:53bargaining that are subject to a better off overall test underpinned by the award.

01:58The coalition says it wants to have a look at any potential concerns from small businesses.

02:03Are you likely to get the support to see this legislation passed through both houses?

02:08Well there is a clear question for the opposition. Will they respect the decision of the Australian

02:13people? This was an election commitment and one that was clearly stated.

02:18Some of the questions that the coalition have you know really are nonsensical. Asking how many

02:27businesses would be affected. Well what we're suggesting is that we need to keep the status quo.

02:33Businesses are already paying these penalty rates and what we're saying is workers deserve

02:39these penalty rates and they shouldn't be eroded. So the test is really for the coalition. Do they

02:45support preserving people's take home pay or do they want to see people working longer for less?

02:53That's a question on them. We'll be proceeding with this legislation because it was a clear election

02:58commitment that was put to the Australian people. Let's go now to another issue. I appreciate this is outside

03:05of your portfolio and just breaking this morning but Australia's lifted the remaining biosecurity

03:11restrictions on US beef. Why are we doing this? Well there has been a decade-long review process of the US

03:19import restrictions on beef and that's been underpinned by scientific and rigorous risk assessment.

03:28Not done by the politicians but done by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestries.

03:37They have been looking at this for a long time and they now have assessed that the right controls are in

03:44place to ensure that our biosecurity is not under any threat. We need to be really clear we will never

03:51compromise on biosecurity and it must be underpinned by scientific and risk assessment evidence. That's

03:59what the department has done. They've made this assessment that the right controls are in place

04:06to protect our biosecurity. Does seem like curious timing though Minister. Is this an olive branch to

04:12the US at a crucial time when the threat of looming tariffs loom large? Well firstly I would say that

04:22that this process has been going on for a decade and a decision by the department but if we actually

04:29look at trade I mean our beef producers our agricultural producers at large benefit from

04:37having free and fair trade around the world. Of course 70 percent of our agricultural products

04:45are exported and having access to markets is really critical. Our farmers do an amazing job,

04:51they make a world-class product and when it comes to beef there is still significant demand even with the

04:56tariffs on Australian beef and so this is of course an important issue that we'll keep prosecuting with

05:05the United States about having free and fair trade but our agricultural producers export to the world

05:14with their world-class product and we want to support them with that.

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