Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a bit disappointing that the opposition cannot rake up one member to be in the chamber. But we now have the good member for Melbourne Ports joining us. It is very pleasing to see that we have at least one member of the opposition here during this debate.

What I was saying while there was a dearth of members there on the opposition side was that there has been a significant decline in trade union membership. From August 1992 the proportion of those with union membership has fallen from 43 per cent to just 17 per cent of the workforce. This is the lowest proportion of union membership recorded in the history of our nation. In fact, if we look at union membership it is holding up, of course, in the public service, but in the private sector we are down to 12 per cent of employees with trade union membership. What we have seen in the royal commission is the union blackmail, the harassment, the coercion, the corruption and the bribery. With the things that we have seen, is it any wonder that union membership is at such low levels in our nation's history?

I want to get back to the details of what this bill actually does and how it restores the balance. Firstly, the bill reforms the greenfields agreement to remove the current union powers to veto, including good-faith bargaining rules to negotiations by allowing an employer to seek approval of a greenfields agreement after three months of bargaining while protecting future employees by retaining existing agreement approval requirements and ensuring agreements are consistent with prevailing industry standards. Secondly, the bill deals with the excessive right-of-entry visits by union officials by limiting the right of entry for discussion purposes to unions that are covered by a relevant enterprise agreement or who are invited to the workplace by a member or prospective member. The reforms will also involve the repealing of objectionable amendments to the provisions introduced by the former government in 2013 relating to lunch room invitations and also helicopter joy-rides. Thirdly, the bill provides that underpaid workers receiving interest on unclaimed money will be back paid for that when it is held by the Commonwealth, when the amount is at least $100 and when it has been held back by the Commonwealth for at least six months. It will also be implementing a number of recommendations from the 2012 Fair Work panel not implemented by the previous government.

In the time allowed, I will quickly go through those. They are simplifying the interaction between workers' compensation and annual leave; requiring employers to give employees a reasonable opportunity to discuss requests for extended unpaid parental leave before a request can be refused; clarifying the circumstances where annual leave loading is payable on termination; a range of measures to improve the operation of individual flexibility arrangements, including ensuring enterprise agreements cannot unduly limit their scope; increasing unilateral termination for a period of 13 weeks; clarifying the existing position that monetary benefits can be traded for non-monetary benefits; and providing a defence for employers to an alleged contravention of a flexibility term where they reasonably believe that the requirements of the term were complied with. Also introducing a new protection for employees who make individual flexibility arrangements by providing that employees must provide a statement confirming the reasons they consider that the conditions they have negotiated make them better off overall; removing Labor's 'strike first, talk later' loophole in the act by providing that an application for a protected action ballot order cannot be made unless bargaining has commenced—also delivering on Labor's 2007 election promise that such scenarios would not occur; providing that industrial instruments do not transfer with workers who transfer on their own initiative between associated entities; and, finally, providing the Fair Work Commission with clearer powers to dismiss unfair dismissal proceedings without a hearing or a conference in certain circumstances, such as where an application is frivolous or vexatious, or the applicant fails to comply with a Fair Work Commission direction or order.

This is part of the coalition's task of getting on with the job of fixing the mess that we inherited. The carbon tax is gone. The boats are as good as stopped. We are fixing the mess on the NBN. We have made a decision on an airport for Western Sydney with our first international airport for Western Sydney. We have the roads of the 21st century and the construction has started and the plans are underway. We are tackling the budget deficit and we are also restoring a fair and sensible balance to the workplace act. And we can see the results today.

Today, we had the release of the ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence ratings. That has shown the results of the sound steps that the coalition are making. There has been an 11.1 per cent rise in household perceptions about their financial situation compared to last year. Of course last year was when the previous Labor government was in power. In 12 months we have added 11 per cent to consumer perceptions. Because of the measures that the coalition are sensibly putting in place, we now have consumer confidence back above its long-term average. The ANZ chief economist, Warren Hogan, is quoted today as saying:

Signs that consumer confidence is bouncing back, combined with strengthening business surveys, gives us more confidence that the non-mining recovery remains on track.

The Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014 is a part of the coalition repairing the mess we inherited. It restores the sensible balance to the Fair Work Act and I commend the bill to the House.

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