Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I have not yet heard from the opposition, so I do not know if the opposition is going to support these sensible amendments.

I have a question for the minister. If an applicant comes up to an employer and says, 'I want to make a claim against you,' and it turns out the employer has not kept proper records as required by law, the minister said there are other parts of the bill that strike the appropriate balance. Can the minister please point to the parts of the bill that will assist an employee to make such a claim in circumstances where the employer has basically failed to comply with the law, failed to have the proper records? If they do not have the proper records, and if they have done it deliberately, doesn't that clearly put an employee on the back foot and make it more difficult for the employee to pursue their claim, through no fault of their own?

The minister suggested that this was somehow reversing the onus of proof in a claim for underpayment of wages. It is an evidentiary onus that shifts. It is just an evidentiary onus, and one that the employer can discharge. Given that, and given that this is a well-known legal principle, does that change the minister's mind?

See this speech in context