Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Labor won't be supporting these amendments. Under the government's amendments, workers will lose their right to work on the basis of intelligence rather than of conviction. This is exactly the issue that we've raised—why there's no definition of 'serious crime' in this bill. But now the government's in fact expanding that. So, rather than a conviction, it will be based on intelligence, which will see applicants denied natural justice, with their employment put at stake by what could be baseless accusations and with limited grounds of appeal. Let's be clear that this could mean that a worker could be denied entry into their workplace based on a rumour alone. A worker could lose their job based on some gossip. A worker could lose their livelihood based on a colleague lying about them to get even at their workplace. Is this really what the Prime Minister means when he says that they're for workers, when their jobs could be snatched away by rumour, gossip and innuendo?

Police and criminal intelligence authorities already have significant powers to investigate and prosecute offenders for serious crime, and this legislation should not be used as a quasi-tool to penalise workers by removing aviation and waterside workers' rights to work simply on the basis of intelligence alone. Labor will not be supporting these amendments.

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