❓ Ms. Collins questions the Deputy Premier on the Cook Labor government's commitment to fair wages for workers during the Easter Saturday public holiday. The Deputy Premier accuses the opposition of being out of touch with workers and criticizes their stance on the holiday.
AnsweredQoN 570Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Easter Saturday public holiday
570. Ms Caitlin Collins to the Deputy Premier:
I refer to the Cook
Labor government's plan to legislate Easter Saturday as a public holiday.
Can the Deputy
Premier update the house on how this government is committed to ensuring fair
wages and recognition for the workers who keep our state running while others
rest?
570. Ms Caitlin Collins to the Deputy Premier:
I refer to the Cook
Labor government's plan to legislate Easter Saturday as a public holiday.
Can the Deputy
Premier update the house on how this government is committed to ensuring fair
wages and recognition for the workers who keep our state running while others
rest?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member
for that question. We saw the Public and Bank Holidays Amendment Bill 2025 go
through this house today. The legislation will, in particular, make Easter
Saturday a public holiday. Today we saw an extraordinary performance by the
opposition. I have been around for a while, but the opposition demonstrated its
extremely shambolic nature during the debate on this issue. The fact is that
Easter Saturday is a public holiday in every mainland state and territory. The bill
will ensure fairness for essential workers. Nurses, police, emergency services
workers, transport workers, retail workers and hospitality workers will be paid
a fair wage for working over a weekend that people like to spend with their
family and use to travel to experience our great state. As the member for
Maylands so perfectly put it, the Liberal Party is waging a war on weekend
workers. Today we did not hear one mention of the retail workers, hospitality
workers or essential workers who work on Easter Saturday. Of course, we saw it
so plainly when the Leader of the Opposition said:
It is the Saturday when everybody has
the day off anyway and everybody goes on holidays, but no, the government says,
"It's very important that we bring through this change."
How out of touch are
the Leader of the Opposition and the Liberal Party?
Even more
extraordinary was today's debate during which the opposition moved three amendments
to remove Easter Saturday as a public holiday, which were defeated. The member
for Carine tried to backtrack a second later. We have heard that the opposition's
policy is to remove the Easter Saturday public holiday. That is the policy that
it will take to the next election. I cannot wait to see the Leader of the
Opposition stand up and say at the next election, "Our policy is to remove
the Easter Saturday public holiday."
The last point is the extraordinary way that the
amendments were moved. The Leader of the Opposition stood during the debate
on clause 5 to move the amendment to delete lines 1 to 3. He moved the
amendment but never explained it. He refused to speak about it. Our side asked,
"What does it mean?" The Leader of the Opposition would not tell us.
He did not know what the amendment was for. The parliamentary secretary had to
guess or get information about what—
Point of order
Mr Shane Love: I am questioning the relevance of this
discussion to any matter that the Deputy Premier has carriage of as a minister.
Mr Lachlan Hunter interjected.
The Speaker: Member for Central Wheatbelt, you do not
need to comment when we are dealing with a point of order; they will be heard
in silence.
I will not uphold
that point of order. The question is about the public holiday reform that is going
through at the moment, and the minister is responding to that. Carry on, minister.
Questions without notice resumed
Ms Rita Saffioti: I know that members opposite are
very embarrassed because after the Leader of the Opposition stood to move the amendment
and the question was, "What do you mean?", he said nothing. The
parliamentary secretary had to explain what he thought it was. When asked
again, the Leader of the Opposition said, "It has been said"! He had
no idea about the amendment that was put; he read out the amendment but had no
idea. Again, that just shows how out of touch the Liberal and National Parties
are with workers in Western Australia, workers around the state. I cannot wait
for the opposition to back in its position, the position that it took today
that Easter Saturday should not be a public holiday, in the lead-up to the next
election. The opposition said that that is its policy, and I cannot wait for
that debate to be had at the end of 2028.
for that question. We saw the Public and Bank Holidays Amendment Bill 2025 go
through this house today. The legislation will, in particular, make Easter
Saturday a public holiday. Today we saw an extraordinary performance by the
opposition. I have been around for a while, but the opposition demonstrated its
extremely shambolic nature during the debate on this issue. The fact is that
Easter Saturday is a public holiday in every mainland state and territory. The bill
will ensure fairness for essential workers. Nurses, police, emergency services
workers, transport workers, retail workers and hospitality workers will be paid
a fair wage for working over a weekend that people like to spend with their
family and use to travel to experience our great state. As the member for
Maylands so perfectly put it, the Liberal Party is waging a war on weekend
workers. Today we did not hear one mention of the retail workers, hospitality
workers or essential workers who work on Easter Saturday. Of course, we saw it
so plainly when the Leader of the Opposition said:
It is the Saturday when everybody has
the day off anyway and everybody goes on holidays, but no, the government says,
"It's very important that we bring through this change."
How out of touch are
the Leader of the Opposition and the Liberal Party?
Even more
extraordinary was today's debate during which the opposition moved three amendments
to remove Easter Saturday as a public holiday, which were defeated. The member
for Carine tried to backtrack a second later. We have heard that the opposition's
policy is to remove the Easter Saturday public holiday. That is the policy that
it will take to the next election. I cannot wait to see the Leader of the
Opposition stand up and say at the next election, "Our policy is to remove
the Easter Saturday public holiday."
The last point is the extraordinary way that the
amendments were moved. The Leader of the Opposition stood during the debate
on clause 5 to move the amendment to delete lines 1 to 3. He moved the
amendment but never explained it. He refused to speak about it. Our side asked,
"What does it mean?" The Leader of the Opposition would not tell us.
He did not know what the amendment was for. The parliamentary secretary had to
guess or get information about what—
Point of order
Mr Shane Love: I am questioning the relevance of this
discussion to any matter that the Deputy Premier has carriage of as a minister.
Mr Lachlan Hunter interjected.
The Speaker: Member for Central Wheatbelt, you do not
need to comment when we are dealing with a point of order; they will be heard
in silence.
I will not uphold
that point of order. The question is about the public holiday reform that is going
through at the moment, and the minister is responding to that. Carry on, minister.
Questions without notice resumed
Ms Rita Saffioti: I know that members opposite are
very embarrassed because after the Leader of the Opposition stood to move the amendment
and the question was, "What do you mean?", he said nothing. The
parliamentary secretary had to explain what he thought it was. When asked
again, the Leader of the Opposition said, "It has been said"! He had
no idea about the amendment that was put; he read out the amendment but had no
idea. Again, that just shows how out of touch the Liberal and National Parties
are with workers in Western Australia, workers around the state. I cannot wait
for the opposition to back in its position, the position that it took today
that Easter Saturday should not be a public holiday, in the lead-up to the next
election. The opposition said that that is its policy, and I cannot wait for
that debate to be had at the end of 2028.
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