Mr PALLAS (Treasurer) — It gives me great pleasure to rise to speak about the impact of the Fair Work Commission decision on Sunday penalty rates on Victorian workers and the Victorian economy…. This decision comes against a backdrop of annual wage growth of 1.9 per cent, which is barely keeping pace with inflation in Victoria. It also comes as Australia broadly is seeing some very low employment growth, with a notable exception of course being Victoria, which has seen 97 000 jobs — 97 300 jobs, in fact — in the past year while the rest of Australia, the rest of the country, has created 7300 jobs in total. Yet those opposite and of course their bumbling Canberra masters have cheered on the recent decision of the Fair Work Commission to further cut the take-home pay… Victorian workers will be adversely affected by this. This will see a direct cut to the ability of tens of thousands of Victorian workers right across this state to put food on the table, to pay the bills and to keep a roof over their heads.

Estimates of the numbers of affected hospitality workers by electorate indicate, for example, that the member for Malvern could see around 950 workers in his electorate take a real pay cut, and the member for Box Hill could see 1050 similarly affected workers…

The Andrews government will fight for the right of every Victorian to receive fair pay for their work and also to receive fair compensation for time away from home, family and friends…. It is a basic right of every Victorian to get fair pay for a fair day’s work.