Coalition voters reject cut in Sunday penalty rates

Date
    December 27, 2015
    Sydney Morning Herald

The Turnbull government will face overwhelming opposition from voters in key Liberal and Nationals seats if it supports the move to cut Sunday penalty rates.   

With Labor and the union movement working hard to persuade voters that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull favours cutting Sunday pay for retail and hospitality workers, exclusive ReachTEL polling conducted for the left-leaning Australia Institute shows the move will face strong opposition from electors in key Coalition seats.   

Polling across the federal electorates of Warringah, held by former prime minister Tony Abbott, Dickson, held by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, New England, held by the Nationals' deputy Barnaby Joyce, and the NSW seat of Page on December 17 found between 65 per cent and 79 per cent of people in those electorates want Sunday penalty rates in the retail industry either kept the same or increased.   


In Warringah, 51.1 per cent of electors want Sunday rates for retail workers to stay the same and 13.7 per cent want them increased.

And in Dickson 60.1 per cent per cent want Sunday rates for retail workers to stay the same, while 18.7 per cent want them increased.

Mr Abbott and Mr Dutton are prominent members of the Liberal Party's right wing, the source of strong support within the Coalition for reducing weekend penalty rates.   

The ReachTEL polling was conducted two weeks after the Productivity Commission's final report on Australia's workplace relations framework was handed to the Turnbull government and just four days before the report was released to the public on Monday.

Voters were asked about Sunday penalty rates in the retail sector specifically. They were not asked about the hospitality sector.

The Productivity Commission's report recommended that the Fair Work Commission reduce Sunday penalty rates for hospitality and retail workers to match lower time-and-a-half rates paid on Saturdays.   

Its recommendation did not extend to emergency workers, nurses, or teachers.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the idea was something the Fair Work Commission could adopt if it wanted to, but it had nothing to do with the Turnbull government.

"The government has no plans to change penalty rates," Ms Cash said this week.

"Penalty rates are set by the independent Fair Work Commission, just as interest rates are set by another independent body [the Reserve Bank]."

But Labor's employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor has criticised Senator Cash and the Turnbull government for refusing to rule out the recommendation immediately.

"If Malcolm Turnbull and this government does not want to support cutting penalty rates, then they can reject the recommendation of the Productivity Commission today," Mr O'Connor said.

"But the minister has chosen not to do that."

Executive director of the Australia Institute Ben Oquist said the polling showed it was not just Labor voters who were concerned about the cuts to penalty rates.

"It also indicates it would be wise for Malcolm Turnbull to ignore the pleas of those conservative MPs in his ranks, who risk being an electoral liability for the new Prime Minister," Mr Oquist said.

"Public holidays like Christmas and days like Sunday are different to normal workdays and should be treated as such."

The strength of opposition to a reduction in Sunday penalty rates was similar in Mr Joyce's New England, where 55.3 per cent of voters wanted rates to stay the same and 15.4 per cent wanted them increased.   

In Page, held by the Nationals' Kevin Hogan, 55.4 per cent of voters wanted rates to stay the same, while 19.2 per cent wanted them increased.

Female voters were more concerned than men about cutting penalty rates.

In Mr Abbott's seat, 68.5 per cent of women wanted rates to stay the same or be increased, compared to 60.9 per cent of men.

In Mr Dutton's seat, 83.7 per cent of women wanted them to stay the same or be increased, compared to 73.7 per cent of men.

There were 743 residents polled in Warringah, 738 in Dickson, 747 in New England, and 762 in Page.

Goodness me , right wingers had the intelligence and forsight to see what happens when you furk with peoples money , 2007 must be fresh in their minds.

turncoat won't commit to cutting penalty rates, at least not before the election ... if he does he'll see his numbers crash to Abbotts level

Swagman wrote on Dec 27^th, 2015 at 9:19am:



so after years of telling us that it is bad, you now want it left alone?

that's what I like, a man of conviction 


by the way, it doesn't matter if it's the fair work commissions call, if they scrap penalty rates, the libs will wear the flak

John Smith wrote on Dec 27^th, 2015 at 9:23am:


.....which is why I added.........

Swagman wrote on Dec 27^th, 2015 at 9:19am:


.....which in other words is pork barreling to the masses.....the one thing Labor do well (until they run out of money) 

Deregulating IR is an economic 'antibiotic', opposing it, is an electoral 'boiled lolly'....

Most of the the Public are like spoilt little kids, that prefer lollies to their medicine.   

John Smith wrote on Dec 27^th, 2015 at 9:23am:


.....as always.  The Coalition makes the tough calls and cleans up Labor's crap, pays off the debt it accumulates and reduces the unemployment it creates and wears the flak.

Trashing workchoices scammed Labor into Govt and also created shite loads of debt and lifted unemployment by 50%. 

We never friggin learn.....

Swagman wrote on Dec 27^th, 2015 at 9:47am:


didn't you just suggest that the libs do the same? 

I will never understand people like Swag who want workers to live absolutely poo lives while inequality skyrockets and cut all the gains of the 20th century because it's the "workers who are entitled' in a world where if you are born into capital, it's basically impossible to fail. Trump is the perfect example, terrible businessman who has mismanaged all his companies even though he was easy mode (Casinos and Property development) and would have actually made more money if he just dumped his daddies money into a S&P 500 and is now going on to likely be the president of the United States not on any merit but because he's rich and spouts stupid populist fascist poo. I'm sure Aqua loves Trump as well.

It's amazing, with all this amazing production exponentially growing, our rights and working hours are going back to the 19th century.
Keynes predicted we would be working 13 hours a week by now, honestly that's possible, you can match the production of someone in 1950 in less than one working day today, you can match the production of someone a decade ago in 30 hours, why should workers work more hours for less? What argument of progress is that? Oh wait, because it's not the workers getting more greedy, it's the Capitalists.

People like Swag won't be happy until working conditions are equal to that of some third world country and he can pretend he's living the Randian dream.

Kiron22 wrote on Dec 27^th, 2015 at 10:57am:


People like Swag and Aqua forget after they have screwed all the low hanging fruit  "They will come to get you next"

Voters not happy in Conservative seats about cutting penalty rates why?.................  Because these days the only jobs their kids can get are in the sectors affected