Penalty rates set to be secured
Isobel Roe: The Australian Retailers Association, which represents big supermarket chains such as Coles and Woolworths, wants to see less of a reliance on penalty rates. It's applied to the Fair Work Commission, proposing to allow some staff to opt out of penalty rates, overtime and some allowances in favour of a 35 per cent pay rise. But federal Labor will introduce legislation today to prevent that. That move is backed by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association. Their national secretary is Gerard Dwyer.
Gerard Dwyer: The legislation will provide proper protection for lower paid workers working unsociable hours in the service sector like retail, like hospitality.
Isobel Roe: The Retailers Association says it's not trying to remove penalty rates. It argues workers opting into an annual salary would gain financial stability. And businesses would have more certainty on worker wages, improving productivity. The shop union's Gerard Dwyer rejects that.
Gerard Dwyer: It's got nothing to do with improving productivity. People are saying, oh, this will be simpler. But that's not the motivation. The motivation is to reduce the payment to lower paid workers who work unsociable hours.
Isobel Roe: It's rare for the federal government to intervene in a Fair Work Commission matter. But in a statement, Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth says the government wants to protect the penalty rates of 2.6 million of the country's low paid workers. The legislation is likely to receive the support of the Greens, although there's been no decision made by the party yet. The Coalition's industrial relations spokesman, Tim Wilson, has been briefed on the bill and is not yet guaranteeing his party's support either.
Tim Wilson: When the minister was asked whether it was going to have an impact on small business, she gave a very explicit firm commitment that it wouldn't. But we're not going to know that till we have a clear consultation with small business and hear that from them. No penalty rates are being paid on jobs that don't exist.
Isobel Roe: Not all small businesses see it that way, like Nat Latter, who owns a bookstore in Perth.
Nat Latter: We choose to stay closed on a public holiday because we don't make enough money on those days to cover penalty rates. However, we're happy to do that. We're happy to have the day off and for other organisations they might make a different choice.
Isobel Roe: Labor's bill will be introduced to the lower house later today.
Sabra Lane: Isobel Roe there.
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Video shows US Army testing new missiles in Australia
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ABC News
an hour ago
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The future is uncertain for South Australia's major disability employment provider. What does it mean for those it supports?
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Ms Warland said Lakota enjoyed the opportunity to "get out and about" in the community through Bedford, and had developed a "lot of camaraderie" with a "really good bunch of people". "In the morning, he has his work bag, he hops into the back of the car and I'm driving him and he taps me on the shoulder about 20 times on the way and signs, 'work, work work' with a big smile on his face," she said. "He's really excited to be going to work. Bedford offers supported employment opportunities in areas ranging from hospitality, gardening, laundry and manufacturing, with a workforce understood to be numbering 1,650, including those it supports as well as other employees. Its website states it has grown to become the second-largest employer of people with disability in Australia, and the largest in South Australia, with 22 locations, and it has operated for 80 years. In addition to supported employment, Bedford also has a residential service accommodating about 50 people living with disability. Sky Harvey has worked in packaging at Bedford for nearly nine years and said she had made "heaps of great mates" through her work. She had hoped to make it to a decade of working at Bedford, but was now uncertain about the future. "Bedford is quite important to me. I nearly made up to nine years and I wanted to make my 10, but I don't know if I can quite make it there yet or not," she said. Bedford had issued a statement on Thursday evening saying that it expected to enter voluntary administration on Sunday; however, on Friday — following a crisis meeting with the state government — its board chair said it was hopeful of a "pathway forward" whilst acknowledging there was "a lot of work to be done" over the weekend. The chair, Janet Miller, said there were a "few things at play" that had led to Bedford experiencing a "cashflow problem". 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Peter Malinauskas said the state government was "able to put some financial support on the table to see if we can't buy some time" ahead of the board's deliberations regarding administration on Sunday, but also said he did not "want to just sign a blank cheque". "We want to invest, we want to support, we want to contribute to the cause of Bedford's ongoing operations, but we have to make sure it's with a clear focus of a sustainable future," he said. "Now, if that can't be achieved, then we have to find an alternative option and that is to support those workers in the event that administration is entered into, which is ultimately a decision exclusively for the board of Bedford." On a federal level, Mark Butler said it was "not the position of government to hand taxpayer funds" to the management of an organisation that had "got their organisation into this level of financial strife". But he said the state government had held a "productive meeting" with Bedford that, if all went well, would "buy us some time" and "arrest the immediate crisis". "To ensure that those South Australians can turn up to work on Monday, most importantly, but also buy us some time to get to the bottom of what has happened here and to work out whether there is a way to get this South Australian icon back on track."
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
In its car-manufacturing heyday, Australia made Citroëns, Minis and Mercedes-Benzes
When the final Commodore SS-V rumbled off Holden's Elizabeth production line in South Australia on October 20, 2017, it closed the book on 120 years of large-scale auto manufacturing in Australia. The story of the Aussie-made car was most famously headlined by such celebrated names as Monaro, Torana, Falcon and Charger, along with familiar ones like Camry and Magna. But it was a story that also included machines often dismissed as foreign, welded and bolted together in places like Heidelberg (in Melbourne, not Germany) or Enfield (in Sydney, not Britain). French Citroëns, Renaults and Peugeots were assembled by Australian workers in Australian factories. So were German Volkswagens and Mercedes-Benzes. Even the comparatively less well-known Studebakers, Ramblers, Singers and Triumphs were built here in Australia as car makers sought to get around tariffs on fully imported vehicles designed to protect Australian industry. Among these local "foreign" cars were specials unique to Australia, such as the Citroën ID19 Parisienne — a simplified version of the brand's famous DS model. Melbourne Citroën enthusiast Ferdi Saliba, who owns a black ID19 with a striking red interior, said many of his car's admirers were surprised it was essentially Australian rather than French. "I recently returned from a 5,000-kilometre trip in the car to Maryborough in Queensland for a Citroën meeting," Mr Saliba said. The ID19 was built in Heidelberg by a company called Continental & General from parts mostly produced in France but with some uniquely Australian touches. To simplify production, and to save money, the ID19 had a traditional manual transmission (instead of the complex semi-automatic in foreign Citroëns), no power steering and locally sourced vinyl trim. It shared its assembly line with Peugeots and Studebakers well into the 1960s. Curiously, the simplicity of these Australian Citroëns (and their rarity) make the ID19s highly sought after by modern collectors. "There aren't that many left in good condition." Another Australian car maker, Australian Motor Industries, assembled Triumphs, Ramblers and Mercedes-Benz cars in Port Melbourne in the 1950s and 1960s from complete knock down (CKD) kits, comprising components delivered from suppliers worldwide. The Benzes included flagship models such as the sophisticated 220S Ponton. Newcastle Benz enthusiast Ian Hemphill admitted he got a kick out of telling other Mercedes owners his was not put together in Stuttgart. "People are always surprised to hear that this flagship Mercedes, the first of the S Class series, was actually assembled in Melbourne," Mr Hemphill said. Volkswagens weren't merely assembled in Clayton, they were truly Australian-made cars, put together with Australian-made panels and parts between 1960 and 1967 before the brand reverted to CKDs in the late 1960s and early 70s. Club VW editor Phil Matthews said older members of the official Australian Volkswagen car club were mostly aware of the brand's local history but younger enthusiasts were often very surprised. "Aussie VWs of the 1960s were quite different from their German, American and British cousins," Mr Matthews said. "In June 1954, Martin and King Pty Ltd of Clayton, Victoria, a railway carriage manufacturer and car body works, began assembly of the first VW CKD packs. "The Menzies government protected the local car industry with a new 30 per cent tax hike on fully imported vehicles so there were plans to add as many Australian-made parts as possible. "By 1959 VW ended importing CKD kits as full-scale manufacturing began at Clayton [of] up to 90 cars per day with up to 75 per cent local content." Competition from other brands (including Mini) and an inability to update new models out of Germany saw Volkswagen revert to assembly of CKD kits in 1968. Nissan (then branded as Datsun in Australia) bought the Clayton plant in 1975, building its own cars alongside the Volkswagens and Volvos, the three brands' cars even sharing the same paint palette. Hillmans, Hunters and Singers, meanwhile, were once built in the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park until 1965. Goggomobil Darts were made in Punchbowl, Sydney, from 1959 to 1961. Ultimately, the comparatively small size of the Australian domestic car market and the high cost of manufacturing compared with many countries in Asia, combined with a steady reduction in import tariffs, doomed the Australian-made and assembled car. Brands like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Chrysler and Ford maintain a strong sales and engineering presence in Australia long after car assembly ended here. Ford Australia has a Regional Product Development Centre at the site of its former factory in Broadmeadows in Melbourne's north. This centre developed the Ford Everest mid-size SUV, built in Thailand and sold throughout Asia. Others brands have disappeared entirely. All that remains of a national car manufacturing industry that once produced hundreds of thousands of cars, utes and SUVs each year, and which ranked in the top 10 car makers worldwide in the 1970s, are a handful of small-scale vehicle producers, defence vehicle manufacturers, and heavy vehicle brands (including: Kenworth, Mack and Volvo) which still assemble trucks in Australia. Among the scores of brands and models once assembled in Australia are many rarely thought of as Aussie cars: Citroën built a modified version of the classic DS in West Heidelberg, Melbourne, from 1960 to 1966. Nissan and Datsun-branded models were assembled in Sydney then built at Clayton, Melbourne, between 1960 and 1992 in the factory previously owned by Volkswagen. The famous Dart was developed in Australia and produced by Buckle Motors in Punchbowl, Sydney, from 1959 to 1961. About 700 were built. Rootes Australia was an affiliate of Rootes Group in Britain, which produced Hillmans, Hunters and Singers from CKD kits in Port Melbourne from 1946 until 1972. Australian Motor Industries assembled several Mercedes-Benz models from 1959 until 1965 in Port Melbourne, including the top-of-the-range 220S. Production of the Mini began in Enfield, Sydney, in 1961. An Australian Mini Cooper S won Bathurst in 1966. Production ended in 1978. Peugeot 203s were assembled in Sydney and Melbourne from 1953, along with the 403, 404 and 504 models. The 404, 504 and 505s were built alongside Citroen and then Renault models in Heidelberg. Various Rambler models were assembled by Australian Motor Industries at Port Melbourne between 1954 and 1978, well after the brand was retired in the United States in 1969. Renault bought Continental & General's Heidelberg factory in 1966, building Renault 10, 12, 16 and 18 model cars there until 1981. An American brand built first in Sydney and then in Heidelberg until 1966. Clayton was home of Volkswagen production from 1960 until 1976. Volkswagen was Australia's third-largest producer in the early 1960s behind only Holden and Ford. The Swedish brand assembled cars alongside Volkswagens and Nissan-Datsuns at Clayton from 1972 until 1988, and still builds trucks in Wacol, Brisbane.
