Penalty rates protection high on new IR minister’s agenda

New legislation to protect penalty rates in awards is expected to be one of the first priorities of new Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth.

Laws protecting penalty rates in awards are expected to be high on Amanda Rishworth’s agenda. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

New legislation to protect penalty rates in awards is expected to be one of the first priorities of new Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth, whose appointment to the critical portfolio was welcomed by employers and unions.

Ms Rishworth, 46, takes over from Murray Watt after serving in cabinet as social services minister and more recently the National Disability Insurance Scheme minister, following the pre-election resignation of Bill Shorten.

Based on Labor’s election commitments, Ms Rishworth’s immediate workplace policy priorities are likely to be laws to protect penalty rates in awards; a ban on the imposition of non-­compete clauses on low- and ­middle-income workers, and; pressing the Fair Work Commission to grant above-inflation pay rises for 2.9 million low-paid workers.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar, who spoke to Ms Rishworth on Monday, welcomed her immediately reaching out to stakeholders.

“It’s a good appointment,” he said. “Industrial relations is a fundamentally important topic. It goes to the heart of productivity in the economy and it’s an issue that business still sees as being incredibly important.

“I think she will be very actively engaged. We look forward to working with her.”

ACTU president Michele O’Neil said the union movement looked forward to engaging constructively with Ms Rishworth on “workers’ real wages continuing to rise, having safe, fair, and respectful workplaces, and addressing the challenges facing working people and our country over the coming years”.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said Ms Rishworth moved into the portfolio at a time of “great challenge for employers, their workforce and the broader economy”. “Building workplace productivity to provide for sustainable wage increases must be a real focus of the new government,” Mr Willox said.

Thanking Anthony Albanese for her appointment, Ms Rishworth praised the “outstanding contributions” made by Tony Burke and Senator Watt in the employment and workplace relations portfolio during Labor’s first term.

“I got into politics to ensure all Australians can reach their potential and to create opportunities for everyone,” she said, adding that she looked forward to continuing the government’s work to ensure Australians had the opportunity to obtain and retain well-paid and secure jobs.

Ms Rishworth, who recently secured a seventh term as the member for the South Australian seat of Kingston, has had a long interest in industrial relations, and an association with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, both as an activist and official prior to entering parliament in 2007.

Amanda Rishworth during the election campaign. Picture: Jason Edwards/NewsWire

In her maiden speech in 2008, she said she had “felt the hard edge” of the Howard government’s contentious industrial relations laws when, as a 19-year-old, she was offered an individual contract, known as an Australian Workplace Agreement, by a large American retailer. “I refused to sign and was no longer offered work despite my five years of loyal service,” she said.

Ms Rishworth said the 2007 election, at which John Howard’s unpopular WorkChoices regime was a central factor in its defeat, was “absolutely critical in determining that Australians will not tolerate a tearing down of their right to a fair go in the workplace”.

Given her experience as a young worker, she said industrial relations reform was not merely an abstract concept for her.

“I know first-hand the pressure, the threats and the consequences a large and thoughtless employer can impose on a young and vulnerable worker,” she told parliament.

“I see it as a fundamental duty for me as a parliamentarian to ensure other workers are not placed in that situation and do not suffer that affront to their rights at work. That is why I am proud to be a part of this government, a government going forward with fairness in the workplace.”

During her speech she made “no apologies for having been a union official”, expressing pride in having helped thousands of people get a better deal at work. “Only those who have no genuine conception of real workplaces can think being a unionist is anything less than a fine and admirable preparation for parliamentary service,” she said.