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

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (17:59): Well, there are two parts I think to your question around why we are doing this. The only impact I can think of that this would have on the Fair Work Commission is that they will clearly need to benchmark what penalty rates equate to in someone's wage versus a rolled-up rate and that—oh, looking sharp, Senator Sharma!

The TEMPORARY CHAIR ( Senator Sharma ): We're all getting dressed up for the ball. Senator Kovacic: Wait 'til I get changed! Senator WATT: Well, it's in your hands how long you have to get changed.

Sorry, I've lost my train of thought. The only impact I can think of that this will have on the Fair Work Commission in terms of the time it will take and the complexity of approving EBAs would be to compare what the penalty rates would work out to versus what a rolled-up rate might be and how they compare. So, sure, that's a little bit of work, but the commission does that sort of thing all the time.

I think your actual question in the end was effectively, 'Why are you doing this?' As I said before—because we think penalty rates matter.