Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2012. The member for Bradfield overnight has not had a road to Damascus conversion experience, because he, along with his colleagues and comrades opposite, opposed protecting worker entitlements last night and here he goes again, railing against the representatives of millions of Australians in the workplace. There is no doubt about it: the coalition instinctively votes against or opposes every bill with the word 'fair' in it. Last night, we had the situation in which we passed legislation to protect the entitlements of workers who were at risk due to the liquidation or bankruptcy of their employers. The coalition opposed that.

Here today, in response to the independent review panel and the Productivity Commission, they are still responding in a negative way, recklessly opposing this legislation—or that is what people listening to the member for Bradfield would believe. If you listened to the member for Farrar before, she was saying that they will pass it through the House. So you have to wonder what their position is. But their position has been a negative one since the electorate had a look at them in 2007 and voted down their position on Work Choices. We on this side are in favour of Fair Work; those on that side are in favour of Work Choices. It is clear from listening to speeches like that one by the member for Bradfield that that is what they are all about.

The background to this particular legislation is that we have been crystal clear about workplace reform, our policies and our plans. What about the coalition? The Leader of the Opposition is currently in witness protection on that particular policy, because he does not want to talk about it at all. What we are talking about here is making changes recommended to us by the Fair Work review panel following consultations with unions, small business, large business and a range of other stakeholders. Many of these changes in this first tranche of amendments are technical, structural, procedural or clarifying changes to the unfair dismissal framework. For example, these changes give Fair Work Australia the power to strike out award variation applications not made in accordance with the act if they are frivolous or vexatious. Any tribunal, court or quasi-judicial body should have that power. They are also given the power to make amendments to applications made by parties to vary or revoke a modern award to make sure that, if there are ambiguities or uncertainty in those applications, they can be changed by Fair Work Australia.

These changes also better align Fair Work legislation with other laws relating to unfair dismissal, extending the time period to 21 days, another sensible provision. They will give the president of Fair Work Australia the power to require applicants to provide more information about the circumstances of dismissal—further and better particulars. That is an important change also. These changes will also make sure that, if a lawyer or a paid agent misbehaves or does the wrong thing after they have been given leave by Fair Work Australia to represent a party, costs can be ordered against them. This bill also changes the name of Fair Work Australia to the Fair Work Commission. That is important as well.

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