Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

The government has moved amendments to the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Bill 2008. The government brought this bill to the House having worked extensively over January with the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council and its subset organisation, the Committee on Industrial Legislation. This was a consultative and collaborative process which had been shunned by the former government. The former government refused to acknowledge that there may be views and assistance available from stakeholders. We took a very different approach. The bill was drafted quickly because we wanted to honour our commitment to the Australian people to end Australian workplace agreement making as soon as possible. As the bill has made its way through the parliament and through the process of the Senate inquiry—which we supported, provided it was conducted in a timely fashion—it has become apparent in discussions with stakeholders that it is convenient to amend the bill in a number of respects.

The amendments before the House today are in four categories. There are a number of amendments which are strictly technical in nature. There are some amendments to clarify the full range of protection for outworkers. There are some amendments to clarify that the long service leave entitlements of employees stemming from state law will be taken into account for the purpose of the no disadvantage test. There are some amendments to ensure that if an employer was using Australian workplace agreements in December last year and they seek to engage an employee who has formerly worked for them, then they will be able to offer them an interim transitional employment agreement. The government had considered this question earlier. We were concerned that, without a robust anti-avoidance provision, there was some possibility that a provision of this nature could be used by the very occasional employer to terminate people in order to re-engage them on ITEAs. We obviously did not want that effect. We have looked at the question, and I am now satisfied we have been able to draft a sufficiently robust anti-avoidance provision. We have dealt with the question in those circumstances.

Regarding the amendments, they have improved and strengthened the bill, which clearly brings to the parliament and brings to the Australian people our promises to end Australian workplace agreement making. Of course, I anticipate that the opposition will say, in respect of the amendments, that they are an indication that the government needed to amend the bill. I would counsel the opposition, if it is going to make those points, that the number of government amendments that the government is making to this bill is smaller than the number of government amendments made by the former Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations when he brought to this House the so-called fairness test. On that occasion, of course, the government moved 44 government amendments. That is greater than the number of government amendments moved on this occasion, which are 37 in number. I am satisfied that this has strengthened the bill. It has brought to the parliament a bill that implements the government’s policy. I commend it to the House.

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