I personally works a lot on Sundays and public holiday and get no penalty rates though arguably my salary is recompensed appropriately and I understand a lot of lowly paid workers rely on penalty rates to get by.

The argument the other way is that weekend service businesses are crippled by penalty rate payments.

Northern based Government Senator Ian Macdonald uses this argument to defend the change saying it was “welcome news for small business and the unemployed across the region”. Senator Macdonald said the tourism and hospitality industries operate seven days week, and support thousands of mum and dad small businesses across the region and providing jobs in areas of high unemployment.

He said any incentive that helped small business to lower their running costs would provide more flexibility to invest in additional staff. “It makes sense that in a region with such a high dependency on tourism and hospitality, that the removal of restrictive elements such as Sunday penalty rates will help stimulate the local economy and lead to more jobs,” he said.

However I’m not sure this will create more jobs and even the Fair Work Commission will only say “reducing penalty rates may have a modest positive effect on employment”. Making Sunday trading easier for businesses does not automatically create demand and it is likely people will merely shift spending – and workers affected will now have less to spend. The Fair Work Commission also noted Sunday remains a special day, despite the fact we are as a society less religious than in times past.

I am reminded of MP Kelvin Thomson’s response to the Restaurant & Catering Industry Association letter seeking a reduction in penalty rates a year or so ago.

“The letter gave me the phone number of your Public Affairs Manager and invited me to contact him to discuss these issues. So I rang last Saturday, and again on Sunday, but there was no answer,” Thomson wrote. “Perhaps there is still some magic left in Saturdays and Sundays after all.” DB