Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:47): I rise this morning to celebrate the decision of the Fair Work Commission yesterday in its landmark junior pay rates case, the case that was launched by my old union the SDA on behalf of 18- , 19- and some 20-year-old workers who quite unfairly for generations have received less pay for doing the exact same work as their older peers. If you are 18 or 19 years old across Australia currently, you can drive, you can vote, you can drink and you can even go to war for our country. But under the award set by the Fair Work Commission previously, you could not be paid the same as someone 21 years old or older. This has been a campaign for many years now. In fact it was a campaign when I first joined the SDA union as an organiser back around 15 years ago. I was privileged to take part in this campaign for 100 per cent pay at 18 and saw firsthand the impact that it had. I saw, for example, the impact it had on a bright young 18-year-old who was a beauty counter manager in a department store, who was being paid less than the part-time older staff that she was managing. We have seen it more recently too with a supermarket worker by the name of Baylin in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, who struggled to pay rent on lower rates of pay. This is a significant win, and I congratulate the union, Michael Donovan, Dean D’Angelo and all the officials and especially all the union members who have fought so hard to make this happen.