Five years ago, I sat with brave young workers from McDonald's in Murray Bridge in South Australia, who had been subjected to horrible, unlawful, anti-union behaviour and had had their rights at work undermined and abused. What these workers exposed was shocking and not limited to just one store in Murray Bridge. We've heard these stories from Macca's workers reported in the media since: stories of break requests being denied, in one instance, a break request to take basic medication being denied. Others said they were called annoying for asking for water or bathroom breaks.

But, with the support of their union and the SA and NT branch of the SDA in particular, these brave workers chose to stand up together and fight back. From Murray Bridge to the courts, they stood up and fought back. And not only did they see their case settled, but their courage has had ripple effects across the entire industry, with, just last month, the Fair Work Commission agreeing with the SDA that Macca's workers across SA should have the right to bargain together for better pay and safer conditions. This means that more than 5,000 South Australian Macca's workers at 53 stores owned by 18 franchisees will now be able to negotiate together—a direct result of Labor's multi-employer bargaining legislation.

And of course, we are not done yet. Our work has delivered real wage increases for millions of workers across Australia. This week we'll introduce legislation into this place to protect penalty rates and awards. As a government, we will continue to stand with workers—like those brave Macca's workers from Murray Bridge—across the country. We'll stand with them and fight alongside them and the unions who fight for them every single day.