Abbott urged to reveal penalty rate policy Unions want Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to say what a coalition government would do to penalty rates, after he told a community forum they were killing jobs. Speaking in Kingston in South Australia on Monday, Mr Abbott said the coalition may support applications to the Fair Work Commission for adjustments to penalty rates. However, he ruled out scrapping penalties entirely if he becomes prime minister, saying: "I am not in the business of taking away workers' pay and conditions." Having said that, I do think there are lots of situations where businesses that were open are not open because it is just not economic to open at the current pay rate. ACTU President Ged Kearney says Mr Abbott's comments show a coalition government will put penalty rates at risk. "The coalition needs to spell out exactly what it plans to do to penalty rates if elected, so workers have a clear choice," she said in a statement on Tuesday. With millions of Australian workers in insecure forms of work, penalty rates are more important than ever for casual and low-paid workers struggling to pay the bills. The coalition is yet to release its industrial relations policy, despite Mr Abbott at the beginning of April promising it would do so "in weeks rather than in months."