Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all honourable members for their contributions to the debate on the Long Service Leave Legislation Amendment (Telstra) Bill 2009. As the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations noted in her second reading speech, this bill is designed to ensure the continued application of the Long Service Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act to Telstra pending development of national long service leave arrangements for all federal system participants. The bill is an interim measure that recognises the particular historical circumstances of Telstra.

In the absence of the measures proposed in the bill, Telstra will need to transition from the Long Service Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act to multiple state and territory schemes, when current transitional arrangements expire on 24 November 2009, and then back to a Commonwealth scheme when new national long service leave arrangements are implemented through the National Employment Standards. The government agrees with Telstra and with the relevant unions that a sensible solution to the complexity and the uncertainty that these multiple transitions would cause is to extend existing transitional arrangements until the new national employment standard on long service leave is in place. With those comments, I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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