For all the complaints that it is a hotbed of right-wingery, News Ltd’s opinion site The Punch certainly packs in the lefties. Here’s union hack Tara Moriarty indulging in economic illiteracy as she defends the night and weekend penalty rates that are crippling many restaurants:

But more importantly, white-collar workers are getting paid penalty rates. If you’re pulling down substantially more than the minimum wage then that is your penalty rate.

Right-o, then. I had my say on the issue recently here.

UPDATE: Tara Moriarty is a real supporter of those on the lowest rungs of society … like problem gamblers:

A SENIOR ALP official has called on independent crossbencher Andrew Wilkie to abandon his timetable for poker machine reform, in the first sign of internal party unrest over Julia Gillard’s power deal with the Tasmanian MP.

The liquor and hospitality workers union United Voice NSW secretary Tara Moriarty, who sits on the ALP national executive and is a vice-president of the NSW branch of the party, has warned Mr Wilkie that tens of thousands of jobs will be threatened by the push for mandatory pre-commitment on poker machines, and called on him to reconsider his timetable.

Ms Moriarty, a rising figure of the Labor Right, has foreshadowed taking her concerns to the Prime Minister if Mr Wilkie refuses to compromise, setting the scene for a potential internal push from the NSW Right faction to scuttle the poker machine reforms. “We would be campaigning heavily on this issue if it looked like it was going to become law,” Ms Moriarty said.