Interview with James Glenday - ABC News Breakfast
JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: Alright, let's get back to some of our top stories now, and we are joined by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Amanda Rishworth, she is in Sydney this morning. Minister, welcome back to News Breakfast.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: It's great to be with you.
JAMES GLENDAY: Hey, we’ll come to your passed legislation yesterday through Parliament, we'll come to that in a moment. I just wanted to ask about the US-Australia relationship first of all though, and this trip that Richard Marles has taken. There's been some conflicting reports about it. What was the reason behind this trip?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, of course, Richard Marles is our Deputy Prime Minister and our Defence Minister. He had a number of meetings, of course, with the Vice President, the Defence Secretary and the Secretary of State. It's not surprising, I think, that we engage very closely with the United States and these meetings are part of that engagement. I think this is really our ongoing connection to our close ally of the United States. Richard Marles was there to attend meetings with some of his counterparts.
JAMES GLENDAY: Was this all about- I mean, there has been a lot of focus about whether or not he had a meeting or a happenstance encounter with the Defence Secretary, but was the actual point of this meeting in order to lock in a face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Anthony Albanese?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Richard Marles would have spoken about a lot of things. I wasn't in the room, but of course, it's not surprising that we would be having meetings with the Vice President, with the Defence- the Secretary of Defence and the Secretary of State. Our relationship with the US as a close, close ally is incredibly important. And so, these meetings are not surprising.
JAMES GLENDAY: Well they're not surprising, but it is unusual for a Deputy Prime Minister to duck away on a sitting week, go last minute and then not have these sort of meetings locked in advance. What was he hoping to achieve? Was there one outcome? Was there one big thing that was so pressing that he had to leave a parliamentary sitting week for it?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, I think this engagement has been quite regular with the US. Of course, they're our close ally and we continue to work with them on important projects like the AUKUS project. So, look, I think this engagement does happen on a regular basis. They are, of course, a close ally and an important partner in our region.
JAMES GLENDAY: You are sort of talking around the question. I'll try one more time. Do you know when Anthony Albanese is going to be meeting-
AMANDA RISHWORTH: [Interrupts] I wasn't in the meeting.
JAMES GLENDAY: OK, so did you have a discussion at a Cabinet level and say, say, right, this is what Richard's trying to achieve?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I'm not going to discuss Cabinet discussions, but what I would say is the Prime Minister has had three warm phone calls with the President. We continue to work as long-standing nations that have worked together, and we'll continue to do that.
JAMES GLENDAY: OK, let's go to your portfolio. During the election, you promised action on interest rates and things like overtime. Those laws have now passed Parliament. What do you think those laws are going to do?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, what these laws are going to do is protect the idea of paying penalty rates and overtime in awards. Our award system is the safety net of what people get paid, and it's really important that we don't see the concept of penalty rates and overtime being eroded so that people’s pay go backwards. So, the piece of legislation we passed was to put in as a principle that if there’s attempts to vary an award or change the safety net, that we can’t see penalty rates and overtime be scrapped if people are going to go backwards. Really important concept to ensure that people's pay packets are protected.
JAMES GLENDAY: Unions are really happy about these laws. I mean, they've made that clear for some months now. Business groups are not. They claim that this is more than what was promised at the election. They worry that this could lead to reviews of the current working arrangements for a lot of Australians. Is that actually a risk?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I don't accept that this was not a clear election commitment. This was a clear election commitment that we would protect penalty rates. What this legislation makes clear is that penalty rates and overtime, which many working Australians rely on, can't be whittled down or removed if they're going to be worse off. And so I do think it's a really important principle. I don't accept we weren't very clear at the election and now we've delivered and implemented that election commitment.
JAMES GLENDAY: Minister, just briefly before I let you go, people are writing in, in their hundreds or at least in their dozens, about little things in life that annoy them, like people who play music loudly on trains. You've had a long week in Parliament. It sounds like you're about to jump on a flight. Is there something, a small grievance you have about everyday life?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, actually, it's probably when I get home that I have a grievance. There is something about that inflection of mum being yelled at from another room. That really- usually many times in a row, I must admit, that is the thing that when you get home from a long day, having that yelled out on multiple occasions is the problem.
JAMES GLENDAY: I feel you. I very much sympathise with that. Minister, we do appreciate you joining the show this morning.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Thank you.
ENDS