Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to return to the matter of prohibited content, which the minister has declined to respond to thus far, and I wonder if he could be so good as to respond at the end of my time. It appears to me that we have the extraordinary situation where the government is saying one thing in the House of Representatives and another thing in the Senate. The Prime Minister said in the House of Representatives:

There have been agreements entered into under the new law which allow for the safety training of people including attending courses provided by unions who are accredited trainers.

Yet we have Senator Abetz saying, as I said before:

No matter how it is described ... it is prohibited content. Therefore we can call it ‘doing the work of angels’ or all sorts of wonderful things but, at the end of the day, the regulation is very clear.

And of course the head of the Office of the Employment Advocate, Mr McIlwain, said:

Clearly, regulation 2.8.5(1)(c) identifies as prohibited content training or leave to attend training, however described, provided by a trade union.

I would be so bold as to suggest that what the government is doing is actually telling the truth in the Senate and squibbing the truth in the House of Representatives by refusing to answer the question in the House of Representatives and saying, ‘Actually, OH&S is a state matter and an employer—out of the goodness of their own heart, if it’s a nice day and if they’re in the right mood—can provide union safety training, but of course you cannot put it in an award, you cannot put it in an agreement and you cannot put it in an AWA because it is prohibited content.’ The minister has a golden opportunity today, away from the hubbub of the House of Representatives main chamber and out of the political spotlight, to actually get up and admit that union sponsored safety training is prohibited content and will not be allowed in any agreement. I now give him the opportunity to do so.

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