Penalty Rates Must Stay

First published in the Logan Reporter on Feb 26, 2016

More than 20 000 people work in part-time jobs in our local community. Nine thousand work in retail and at least 4500 in hospitality.

I know that many of these hard-wroking locals depend on penalty rates to pay the bills and to get by.

That's why it's so disappointing that the Turnbull government is signalling it will slash penalty rates for Australian workers.

Malcolm Turnbull has refusted to rule out his Productivity Commission Review's recommendation to cut penalty rates for hospitality and retail workers in our community.

In the end. all this amounts to is a pay cut for some of our lowest paid workers.

The fact is that seven out of ten Australian workers still work standard hours Monday to Friday.

People forced to work nights or weekends and who miss out on time spent with the families deserve to be compensated.

It's not just retain and hospitality workers that depend on penalty rates; it's also nurses paramedics and firefighters.

Australians are facing the lowest wage growth in 25 years and Malcolm Turnbull would just make things worse by further slashing take-home pay.

I pledge to defend penalty rates from Malcolm Turnbull. Only a vote for Labor can help stop these unfair attacks on working Australians.

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