Federal election 2016: Opinion - penalty rates a potent issue

DENNIS ATKINS: IT’S the potent political issue that has Bill Shorten treading cautiously - but Labor may yet have something up its sleeve.

PENALTY rates are an eat or starve issue for many young people - not literally starving but making the difference between missing a meal and have a hearty chow down.

Listen to hospitality workers during a long weekend and you’ll certainly hear someone say they wouldn’t work if they didn’t get their double time and a half or whatever the rate they get happens to be.

This is why the suggestion of taking away or downsizing penalty rates - such as the Productivity Commission idea of having one rate for both Sunday and Saturday (the lower one, of course) - is such a potent political issue.

The Coalition, whose traditional small and medium business constituency wants to squeeze penalty rates to the smallest financial impact possible, is pulled to “do something” but is terrified of the certain backlash.

Labor is not so torn and has fought many campaigns predicting doom and gloom if the Coalition dumps penalty rates, regardless of the hand-on-heart denials from Liberal MPs.

In the 2007 work choices campaign, the spectre of the loss of penalty rates was front and centre and caused an anti-Coalition swing not just from those directly affected but also from their ums, dads, aunties and uncles.

In this campaign, the Greens are demanding Labor sign a pledge or something promising to lock in penalty rates by statute.

Labor sees this as a steel trap which could have unforeseen consequences and - because they might actually have to govern - are cautious about it all.

This looks like a wedge, which it is, but Labor has a penalty rate announcement up its sleeve - due to be dropped sometime closer to when people are actually voting, which still doesn’t start for another 29 days.

Whether Labor can rebuff the Greens wedge remains to be seen but in a direct contest between the ALP position and that of the Coalition, there is none.

Originally published as Federal election 2016: Opinion - penalty rates a potent issue