Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025

Senator KOVACIC (New South Wales) (11:52): Respectfully, I'm not talking about not changing pay rates or penalty rates. It's about the existing agreements between employers and employees as to the broader terms of their employment that they have already come to an agreement on, which could be impacted by this legislation. The legislation is effectively saying: 'Bad luck.

This applies regardless of an existing agreement that you may have.' I'm trying to understand why consideration wasn't given to that when there are obvious impacts to small business. It's obvious that a small business is going to find that harder to manage than a Coles, a Kmart, a major bank or any other organisation.