I do wish to rise this evening to speak in strong support—unlike the member we just heard from—of the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025, which aims to protect penalty and overtime rates for Australian workers. This bill was introduced by my good friend and colleague the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, a woman who has undertaken extensive consultation. Some might say we had an entire election fought on some of these issues. Millions of Australians got to have their say.

This bill is a bill that goes to the heart of what Labor believes: fairness, dignity and respect for working people. It's a bill that honours the shift workers, weekend workers, early risers and late finishers—the people who work while others rest, who clock in at 4 am to bake the bread or sign off at 3 am after a long night working behind the bar. It's for the workers who spend Christmas Eves stocking shelves and Easter Sundays changing hospital beds. For too long, these Australians have been told their sacrifice doesn't matter—that their time isn't worth more than a Monday-to-Friday nine-to-five. This bill says the opposite. It says that your time does matter, and so does your pay.

This legislation delivers on a key Labor election commitment to protect the penalty rates of around 2.6 million modern-award-reliant workers. It amends the Fair Work Act 2009 to legislate protections that ensure that penalty rates and overtime payments in modern awards cannot be reduced or substituted by any other term that would lower a worker's take-home pay. It's a simple principle, really. Workers should not have their rights eroded under the guise of efficiency or flexibility—not when that flexibility only ever seems to benefit one side, and it's not the worker. Right now, there are active applications before the Fair Work Commission in sectors like retail, banking and clerical work, industries where workers are already underpaid and undervalued are seeking to trade away penalty rates. That's why this bill is so urgent. It speaks to the issues the member for Curtin raised. This is why this urgent bill needs to be before the House now. We want these changes passed and enacted so the commission can apply the new law to those cases immediately, stopping the erosion of pay before the damage is done.

Penalty rates and overtime are not perks. They are not bonuses or benefits to be bargained away. They are recognition of the time that workers spend away from their families, their friends and their communities, working nights, weekends, early mornings and holidays. They are compensation for working nights, when everyone else is asleep, for showing up on Sunday when others are resting or for saying yes to shifts on Christmas Day, New Year's Eve or school holidays, when, honestly, you'd rather be with your kids. When a nurse does a double shift and misses bedtime with her children, that deserves recognition. When a warehouse worker clocks out at 2 am and makes the long commute home, that deserves recognition. When a barista opens up a cafe every weekend while studying full time during the week, that deserves recognition. These are hardworking Australians who keep the country running. They deserve a system that fairly compensates them for this work. Penalty rates recognise that sacrifice. They say: 'Your time matters. Your labour matters, and it's worth more when it costs more.' That's why this legislation matters—because, in recent years, we have seen exactly what happens when workers don't have the protection of government behind them.

The Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025 ensures that penalty rates and overtime cannot be undermined or bargained away as part of enterprise agreements. This bill is designed to be simple, flexible and workable, providing clarity without adding unnecessary complexity. It makes clear that the safety net of minimum conditions under the award system is just that—it's a floor and not a ceiling. The bill strengthens the role of the Fair Work Commission, upholds the principle of no disadvantage and stops the erosion of hard-earned conditions under the guise of flexibility or cost cutting. It closes the loopholes, it restores balance and it sends a clear message: workers rights are not negotiable.

In my community of Newcastle this bill will make a real and immediate difference. Newcastle is a city built on the backs of shift workers. We are home to thousands of nurses, paramedics, aged-care workers, cleaners, hospitality workers, retail workers, transport drivers and security guards—people who don't work standard hours but work odd hours, long hours and hard hours. This bill means that those workers can have certainty that their penalty rates can't be stripped out through enterprise bargaining and their overtime pay won't be sold off for a flat rate or a 'take it or leave it' deal. That matters because, in Newcastle and in so many communities across Australia, every dollar counts. Penalty rates are not an extra; they're not an add-on luxury item. Some members struggle to understand this concept, I think. They are part of essential recognition of long and often very family-unfriendly hours worked and served. They pay the bills; they cover the school uniforms; they keep the fridge full. I've had many conversations with workers in Newcastle who've told me that the penalty rates they earn make the difference between just scraping by and actually getting ahead. For single parents, carers, casuals and part-time workers, penalty rates are a lifeline, and for too long they have been under attack. Let's be very clear about how we got here. Penalty rates were cut under the former coalition government. They allowed it to happen; indeed, they defended it. They said it would help business. They said it would create jobs. They said the impact would be minimal. But, for the retail workers who had to cancel their kids' birthday parties, it wasn't minimal. For the student who had to take on an extra shift instead of studying for an exam, it wasn't minimal. For the aged-care worker who watched their pay shrink while costs kept rising, it wasn't minimal. Labor opposed these cuts from day one. We stood with workers. We fought alongside their unions. I want to give a very special shout-out to Hunter Workers, who are at the forefront of defending workers rights each and every day. It's hard work, but it's noble work. We stood with everyday Australians who knew that a pay cut, no matter how it was packaged up by those opposite, was a blow to both dignity and fairness.

The Liberals never believed in strong workplace protections. They don't support collective bargaining. They don't support a robust awards system. They don't support workers having a real say. We know those opposite won't lift a finger to protect workers entitlements. The former leader of the opposition confirmed it when he said, 'The independent umpire sets the conditions,' and affirmed, 'We don't propose any departure from the current arrangements.' Of course, we have seen the shadow minister come out criticising these laws as well. In contrast, Labor has always fought for a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. It's part of the founding principles of our party. We brought you the Fair Work Act, we introduced universal superannuation, we created paid parental leave, we criminalised wage theft, we banned pay secrecy clauses, we legislated 'same job, same pay' laws to stop the labour hire exploitation, we gave workers the right to clock off and, now, we're acting again to protect penalty and overtime rates, because, when Labor is in government, working people are never on their own.

Let me highlight exactly who does benefit from this bill: women, who make up the majority of the part-time and casual workforce and the majority of those in the care sector, the cleaning sector and the retail sector, who dominate sectors like aged care, cleaning, hospitality and retail, and who are more likely to be working irregular hours and relying on penalty rates to top up otherwise modest pay packets; young people, many of whom began their working lives in shift based industries like fast food, retail and customer service and are more vulnerable to unfair agreements and pay erosion; migrant workers, who are disproportionately represented in award-dependent, shift based jobs and are more likely to be unfamiliar with workplace laws or less empowered to bargain; and low-paid workers, who do not have the leverage to say no to a bad deal and who rely on the award safety net to ensure fairness. This bill is a gender equity measure, it's an antipoverty measure, it's a youth justice measure and it's a multicultural equity measure too. It is everything a good government should be. We use the levers of the law to protect those most at risk of being left behind.

This bill doesn't just fix the past; it futureproofs the system. We know the nature of work is changing faster than ever. The rise of gig work, the growth of casualisation, the increasing influence of AI and automation—these are big forces reshaping our economy. But no matter how work changes, some principles must remain constant. Workplaces must be safe, they must offer fair payment and fair remuneration for work done, and they must be places where people are not exploited. This legislation says clearly that the Fair Work Act is a living document. It must adapt as the workforce evolves, and, as a parliament, we must be responsive to the needs of the people we represent. We are reinforcing the role of the Fair Work Commission. We are raising the floor for workers, not just for now but for the future. We are rebuilding public trust in a system that puts people before profit.

For many modern-award-reliant employees, penalty rates and overtime are not optional extras. They are a critical part of their take-home pay, and this bill continues the Albanese Labor government's commitment to deliver fair and decent conditions for working Australians. It delivers on our government's key election commitment to protect the penalty rates of around 2.6 million modern-award-reliant workers. However, this bill is about more than money. It's about dignity and security. It's about saying to workers in Newcastle and, indeed, in every single electorate represented in this chamber, that their time matters. Their effort matters and their sacrifice matters. Most of all, your government sees that effort and sacrifice.

This is what Labor governments do. We stand up for workers, legislate for fairness and deliver for working people. I commend this bill to the House. Let's protect penalty rates, let's protect overtime and let's keep building a country where no worker is left behind and every worker gets to have a fair go.