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Lowest Paid And Vulnerable Workers Pay Price For Surprise Coalition Win

Lowest paid and vulnerable workers pay price for surprise Coalition win

Australia’s lowest paid and most vulnerable workers will pay the price for last night’s surprise Coalition win, according to industrial relations experts.

LGBTIQ students and teachers have also been left vulnerable to on-going discrimination after Scott Morrison was re-elected Prime Minister.

Labor’s Bill Shorten had promised to protect gay kids and teachers, and reverse penalty rate cuts for workers in hospitality, fast food, retail and pharmacy, if elected.

State Labor governments including Queensland and Victoria had also pledged to introduce criminal penalties for deliberate cases of wage theft, which would have been easier with the backing of a federal Labor government.

No apatite to help battlers

With Scott Morrison and the LNP returned to government for the next three years, those changes will now not happen, according to Miles Heffernan from Fair Work Act Claims.

“There is absolutely no apatite among the Tories to reverse the current penalty rate cuts, nor the next ones scheduled in July, and they certainly have no desire to lock up bosses who commit deliberate wage theft and steal money from their workers,” he said.

“As we all know, elections have consequences, and unfortunately for workers who earn minimum wages and work on their weekends, and unfortunately for workers who have their wages stolen by greedy bosses, there is no positive news in this election result.”

Liberal politicians believe minimum wage too high

A number of Liberal politicians have publicly stated that the minimum wage is too high, and that penalty rates should be abolished, including Georgina Downer and Amanda Stoker – both entitled – and both who had the benefit of being born into well-off families and given a decent education.

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Just days before the election, Ms Downer walked back her previous comments, suggesting the minimum wage and penalty rates were now “about right”.

Since July 2017, workers in hospitality, fast food, retail and pharmacy have had their penalty rates slashed by 15 percent, with another round of cuts to come into effect on July 1.

Research by the McKell Institute estimates that by the time the full cuts are introduced, workers will be $2.8 billion worse off.

The argument for the cuts was to increase productivity and jobs – but recent research has shown that not one job has been created by cutting penalty rates.

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LGBTIQ school students and teachers at risk

The election result is also bad news for LGBTIQ students and teachers, who currently can be lawfully sacked or expelled from religious organisations, including schools.

Despite assurances that he would protect gay kids from discrimination, Mr Morrison reneged on his commitment, instead pushing the issue off to a committee, so he wouldn’t have to deal with the issue before the election.

Mr Shorten had promised to abolish discrimination against LGBTIQ students and teachers.

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“For the next three years, we have a fundamentalist Christian running the country, so you can bet protecting gay kids and teachers will not be high on his list of priorities, which he has already demonstrated by cowardly kicking the issue down the road before the election,” Mr Heffernan said.

“No organisation, faith based or not, should be exempt from discrimination laws that the rest of the community has to abide by.

“Instead of seeing legal protections introduced for students and teachers, expect to see other protections introduced for faith based organisations to discriminate against gay people.”


If you have not received your proper wages and entitlements, or if you have been unfairly dismissed from employment, or if you have experienced discrimination or sexual harassment, we can help.

Please call our specialist team at Fair Work Act Claims today on

1300 359 516

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Fair Work Act Claims is a private consultancy and advocacy firm and has no affiliation with any commission, tribunal or government agency.

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