Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to rise to close the debate on the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014. Given that the bill is being debated by this House for a second time, I will not seek to take the House's time in covering, again, the same issues I spoke on before. That said, I would like to thank all of the members for their contribution to this debate and take the opportunity to clarify the operation of this bill, following the contributions made by some of the members of the opposition.

The Registered Organisations Commission, when established, will have an important education function in assisting registered organisations and their officials to understand and work with these laws. To be clear, officials and registered organisations will be able to get advice and assistance to help them in their duties and to understand the framework. Should this bill pass the parliament, the Registered Organisations Commission will be there to help and assist but, if there is illegality or continued and deliberate noncompliance with the laws, they will have the powers available to prosecute and allow the court to decide on penalties. In almost all cases, these are set at maximum penalties and can be issued at the court's discretion. Consistent with longstanding practice, the courts will have the ability to determine the penalty within the framework provided within this legislation. The seriousness test is drawn from the Corporations Act and, again, will be at the discretion of the courts to use. The courts will be able to exercise discretion in the same way as under that act.

Some members have expressed concern about the new provisions, which are also modelled on the Corporations Act, that make it a criminal offence to breach the duties of a registered organisation's office holder. Let me be very clear: these provisions are in the Corporations Act today, and many voluntary officeholders and community groups are held to a similar standard. The only people who have anything to fear from these provisions are those who do the wrong thing and, importantly, are found by a court of law to have done so. The government would ask the Registered Organisations Commissioner to create fact sheets to assist officials within registered organisations to understand these provisions. It is also expected that the training required under this bill will adequately equip any office holder to understand their responsibilities under these provisions.

This House has now dealt with amendments that seek to fix the law as it currently stands. Unless these amendments pass this parliament as a whole, officials of registered organisations will run the very real risk of being in breach of the laws as they stand today in relation to the issues identified by the opposition that I mentioned earlier.

In closing, I would encourage all members of this place to seriously look at this bill and today support the honest and hardworking members of registered organisations who want peace of mind that their fees and dues are going to an open and transparent organisation. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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