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

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (19:07): It's not unusual in this legislation for the Fair Work Commission to be effectively told that they must do certain things or that they must ensure certain things. It's also not unusual for the Fair Work Commission to be then given discretion to determine a whole range of things. That's what will happen here too.

Senator, I might just make the point that you have said several times that the coalition supports penalty rates. We're entirely able to vote on this bill right now if you support penalty rates. This has been going for a while, and we've been going round and round in circles.

It feels a lot like holding up a vote on penalty rates.