The decision to cut penalty rates for hospitality, retail and fast food workers is a devastating blow for the hundreds of thousands of low paid workers who rely on them, and was made possible because Malcolm Turnbull and his government have been campaigning for these cuts.

Labor does not support this incredibly disappointing decision. With inequality at a 75-year high, wages growth at historic lows and underemployment at record highs, there could not be a worse time to cut workers’ take home pay.

Make no mistake, Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal government have been pushing for penalty rates to be cut. They wear the blame for this decision. The Government could have made a submission to this review to make it clear that they supported penalty rates, but it didn’t. Only Labor made a submission to the Fair Work Commission process.

More than 60 Coalition members – including Malcolm Turnbull – have called to abolish or cut penalty rates. It’s the one thing that unites the Liberal Party and very clearly differentiates it from Labor.

While we respect the independence of the Fair Work Commission, we will never support changes to modern awards which leave workers worse off. Labor will examine the decision of the Fair Work Commission decision in detail. Australians can be assured that, as the only responsible party that puts people first, Labor will be looking at ways to ensure that awards are a safety net that workers can rely on.

Last month, Labor announced that we would strengthen the rules that govern the Fair Work Commission’s decisions, so that low-paid workers would be protected from these sorts of unfair decisions.

Malcolm Turnbull is happy to see workers get their pay cut and big business get a tax cut. It shows how out of touch he is with the lives of middle and working class families.

Bill Shorten MP & Brendan O’Connor MP

This year’s increase to private health insurance premiums will see Australian families paying $200 a year more, hitting household budgets at a time of sky-high out-of-pocket health expenses under the Turnbull Government.

The $200 a year increase – confirmed in recent media reports – means that families will be paying around a total of $900 extra in annual premiums under the Abbott/Turnbull Government – that’s a 23 per cent increase in annual premiums.

The latest increase would put significant strain on families when the Government is already forcing them to pay more out of their own pocket for health.

Australians are paying more than ever for their private health insurance but they are getting less and less.

This $200 increase comes on top of some of the highest premium increases on record, spiralling complaints against private health insurers and Australians increasingly discovering they are simply not covered for basic inclusions in their policies.

Last financial year there were 4,416 complaints to the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman, a 30 per cent increase in complaints under the Liberals, and it is now estimated that 40 per cent of all PHI policies have some form of exclusion.

Australians simply don’t feel they are getting value for their private health insurance under this Government. Despite the ever increasing cost of their private health insurance, people are finding they are not covered for things like pregnancy, cataract surgery, hip and knee replacements and heart surgery.

Quite simply, Malcolm Turnbull is ripping Australians off at every turn. Australians are paying more than ever to visit a GP, they are paying more than ever for private health insurance, and yet the Government is still refusing to lift the GP freeze and invest more in health.

Graham Perrett MP