Liberal backbencher Alex Hawke calls for penalty rates to be cut; Labor accuses Coalition of 'Trojan Horse' attack on workers' rights

Updated

Labor has seized on a Federal Liberal backbencher's call for weekend and public holiday penalty rates to be slashed for small business workers, saying it is a "Trojan Horse" for attacks on nurses and paramedics.

Western Sydney backbencher Alex Hawke said the country's youth unemployment "crisis" warranted immediate change.

"If you change penalty rates now, in six to 12 months you'd start to see an impact of more small businesses taking on more young people," he said.

"Given that Sundays are no longer sacrosanct ... having to pay a 75 per cent loading [is] an old concept.

"There's no real reason or modern defence for paying such a loading on the same trading day as any other."

His call flies in the face of the Coalition's election promise to make no changes to penalty rates in this term of government.

The Government has promised to set up a Productivity Commission inquiry into industrial relations and take any recommendations it supports from it to the next election.

But Mr Hawke said with youth unemployment at 13 per cent nationally, and more than 20 per cent in parts of western Sydney, the country cannot afford to wait that long.

"I think we have to act early and recognise, what are the reasons that we have youth unemployment? Well, the reasons are an inflexible system for many small businesses," he said.

"The small businesses I speak to tell me that if you could reduce penalty rates on Sundays, weekends, public holidays, they would add that extra person.

"You'd see a lot more shifts for young people on weekends, Sundays and public holidays."

In March, Mr Hawke was one of a group of Liberal MPs, including fellow western Sydney backbencher Craig Laundy and Victorian MP Dan Tehan, who called for a debate on cutting penalty rates.

But none have gone as far as Mr Hawke did on Thursday.

Labor says comments are prelude to attack on nurses, cleaners

Mr Hawke says he is not calling for public sector workers' penalty rates to be cut, but Opposition Workplace Relations spokesman Brendan O'Connor does not believe him.

"The Opposition knows that cutting hospitality penalty rates is a Trojan Horse to attack the take home pay of nurses, paramedics, aged care workers and cleaners, who rely on penalty rates to pay the bills," Mr O'Connor said.

"This is not just an attack on Sunday baristas, this is an attack on 4.5 million Australians who work in industries where penalty rates apply.

"If you earn penalty rates in this country, your take-home pay is under threat from Tony Abbott.

"How long will it be before Tony Abbott caves into pressure from his backbench and breaks his promise to not touch workers' wages or penalty rates?"

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has long argued the Coalition's true agenda involves cutting penalty rates.

He spoke to reporters before Mr Hawke's comments.

"I suspect that the Abbott Government's only recipe for workplace relations is indeed, as you suggest, to cut penalty rates. How on earth do you make working people better off by making them poorer?" Mr Shorten said.

Mr Shorten has also sought to highlight that it is a year since Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised to create 1 million jobs within five years.

"A Tony Abbott promise is not worth the paper it's written on, but he did say a year ago that under a Liberal government he led, there'd be a million jobs in five years and 2 million jobs in 10 years," Mr Shorten said.

"Now instead what Tony Abbott's given us is a 10-year high in unemployment.

"We have seen that the only jobs policy the Abbott Government has is to send jobs overseas."

A spokesman for Employment Minister Eric Abetz said "penalty rates are a matter for Fair Work Australia and not for governments to determine".

"The Productivity Commission review will report back to the Government later in the term and [Mr Abetz] urges all interested parties to make a submission to it," the spokesman said.

"[The Coalition] said before the last election that any changes we plan to make on workplace reform will be put [forward] at the next election."

Hawke 'calling it as it is', industry says

But the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has praised Mr Hawke's comments.

"You can't have unemployment at a 12-year high, with the youth jobless rates double the national average, and not be concerned," CEO Kate Carnell said in a statement.

"Alex Hawke is calling it as it is. He comes from the western suburbs of Sydney, where youth unemployment is running as high as 20 per cent in places.

"To ignore those figures is to turn your back on Australia's youth. It is irresponsible."

ACTU president Ged Kearney said the Coalition wants to cut wages across the board.

"Penalty rates right across the board would be at huge risk if we start this - nurses, all sorts of people, our emergency services workers, anybody who works evenings or weekends and who relies on penalty rates will effectively have a pay cut if we start in one industry ... there will certainly be a domino effect," she said.

Topics: unemployment, liberals, federal-parliament, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia

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