Anthony Albanese in Sydney where he’ll step up Labor’s campaign on penalty rates

The prime minister is beginning the day in Sydney where he will step up Labor's campaign on penalty rates.

Transcript

00:00Focusing today on penalty rates, the Federal Government if re-elected Labor says they will

00:09commit to legislating to protect penalty rates, so make it law that they can't go backwards.

00:17This would protect the conditions of about 3 million Australian workers who are paid

00:22under award wages.

00:24Those awards contain the minimum pay and conditions that they work under.

00:31This is part of the overall framing of Labor working for those struggling to make ends meet

00:37amid the cost of living crunch, seeking to shore up those additional top up rates that

00:43people get for working weekends and public holidays.

00:47Something they say is at risk because retail, clerical and banking sectors have applied to

00:53the Fair Work Commission to be able to reduce or amend those rates as part of the award.

01:00Usually this process happens through individual agreements, but they're seeking changes as

01:05part of the award rate, so Labor here trying to step up, in their words, to protect these

01:12rates from future changes, potential changes, and they've also used it as an opportunity

01:17to go back over the Coalition's history when it comes to penalty rates.

01:23Back several years ago, the Coalition saying that they would support a reduction in those

01:29pay rates to support small businesses.