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

There are a lot of amendments here that are important and that those opposite belittle. But industry in fact supports these changes. On many occasions, representatives from industry have been party to consultation undertaken by the minister. They have been at the table when these amendments have been discussed and have made submissions to the panel that have been adopted in whole or in part. There are also amendments putting in place the recommendation to appoint acting deputy presidents and acting commissioners for specified periods. There are many changes that provide pathways for judicial complaint, similar to what we see in courts such as the Federal Magistrates Court or the Family Court. This bill makes many sensible changes that will have a big impact.

If you listened to speakers opposite, you might come to the belief that there are a very small number of people associated with this system. But we are talking about Fair Work Australia having approved 16,000 enterprise agreements covering 2.2 million employees. About seven million Australians are currently protected from unfair dismissal. Those provisions were brought forward by this side of politics and were steadfastly opposed by the Liberal Party, because it is in their blood and bones to oppose these sorts of things. More than 810,000 jobs have been created under this government's watch.

We have brought forward reform after reform in workplace relations to protect the entitlements of workers and to assist them. These include reforms to protect those working in the textile and clothing industry and reforms to the road safety remuneration system. We have acted to particularly protect the 120,000 women who work in the social and community sector, who will now get wage award increases of between 23 per cent and 45 per cent in the next decade. But those opposite have consistently opposed every reform that I have talked about. We are lifting up Australian low- and middle-income workers.

We said that we would undertake a review into the Fair Work Act. Guess what the panel decided? I bet that you will not hear this from those opposite, but the panel, which extensively approached industry and small and large businesses, found that the Fair Work Act is working well and meeting its objectives. The economic outcomes under the Fair Work Act have been favourable to Australia's continuing prosperity. There has been no dramatic wages blowout and no drastic increase in industrial disputes. The IR armageddon predicted by those opposite has not occurred.

Notwithstanding that, the panel recommended 53 changes, and the government has taken up the response to that, and this is what the legislation before the House is.

We have also picked up the Productivity Commission's inquiry into the superannuation industry. The Productivity Commission found that existing default fund arrangements resulted in net returns generally exceeding those for non-default funds. Over the eight years to 2011, default funds in modern awards have on average an after-tax return of 6.4 per cent, compared with 5.5 per cent on non-default funds. So, what we are doing here is making some changes.

Mr Fletcher interjecting—

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