STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator O'NEILL (New South Wales) (13:38): Like so many young Australians, one of my first jobs was in the retail sector, and I'm a very proud continuing member of the SDA union. I rise to celebrate and recognise a fantastic magazine, the SDA News. I see in this magazine the faces of young people who've come to this parliament to campaign for fairness for all young Australian workers.

I hear Senator Cadell talking about businesses. The irony is that some of these young workers, who are adult age and deserve an adult wage, are actually being paid proper wages in small businesses but are absolutely not in large businesses, which are the businesses we often use. When we go to Coles and Woolworths, we expect that people are being paid the right wages.

This advance for young workers in retail, fast food and pharmacy has been a longstanding problem for Australia, where so many young people were treated as adults in every other part of their lives but not when it came to their workplace. That is not the kind of Australia that we all believe in. The great thing about this is that young workers in this really fantastic democracy of ours were able to stand up and lead the case.

It was driven by them. Many of them described taking on adult responsibilities. Some of them are carers for their families.

They were paying rent. They're buying food. They're saving while they're being paid less than older colleagues whom they were supervising.

The fundamental injustice of that was met with a decision to ensure that the Fair Work court responded to that reality, and we are now on track to actually get the right outcomes for young Australians. The proposed timeline will mean that, at 1 July 2027, 18-year-olds will get 80 per cent of the pay, 19-year-olds will get 90 per cent and 20-year olds will get the full adult rate, and then we'll move towards 2029 for full adult rate for everybody who's over 18.

That's a fair Australia. That's what we all stand up for. (Time expired)