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

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (18:26): As I've said a number of times, it's still possible to have exemption rates or rolled-up rates in awards and in agreements that are reached at the workplace level. If a particular employee on an award would have received, let's say, an extra $10 an hour for their shift through penalty rates, what's not possible, following this legislation, is for them to get $5 extra an hour through a rolled-up rate.

You can reach an agreement that pays $10 or more; you can't go below that. That's what we're saying here.