Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown brings down the temperature in the chamber by asking:

The Australian Council of Trade Unions recently called on the Government to implement a 4-day working week. Studies have shown this boosts the health and happiness of workers and significantly boosts businesses’ productivity. When will the government commit to a national plan for a 4-day work week with no loss of pay?

Amanda Rishworth:

I’d like to thank the member for her question. And making sure that Australians have decent wages and conditions has been at the heart of what our government has done in our first term and continues to be what we focus on today.

We have in the Senate our penalty rates bill to protect penalty rates and it is disappointing those opposite have been playing with delaying tactics in the Senate to stop allowing those workers to get the protections they deserve. But of course when it comes to flexibility at work, our government put through laws in the last term that do allow workers to request flexibility at work. Whether that’s in the location of where they work or indeed how they might have a span of hours such as compacted work weeks.

We believe that we need a strong safety net in this country. But of course there is flexibility for workers and unions, as well as employers to get together to organise what works for them. So we will continue to make sure the protections are in place within the laws but importantly encourage enterprise bargaining where many of these conditions are put into place. I might say that one of the key things that our government wanted to achieve is to ensure that there was more enterprise bargaining in this country.

Of course, it feel a record low under those opposite. I am very, very pleased to report to the House as of today, there are more workers covered by enterprise bargaining than ever in the history since enterprise bargaining was first introduced. That is because we have been absolutely focused on getting workers and their unions back to the bargaining table to deliver better wages and better conditions.