Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the crossbench for the way in which they have engaged, and I particularly thank the member for North Sydney for this particular amendment.

The government will support the amendment. I was listening to the member for North Sydney and, while decisions have not yet been made—we haven't even started to make decisions in terms of the make-up of the forum—I was thinking back over the years about different fora of this nature which I've participated in in different portfolios, and there was always a risk that exactly what the member for North Sydney described could have happened in terms of the biggest players and groups ultimately dominating it and so we wouldn't get that guaranteed representation, particularly by the small to medium residential sector. I think this amendment provides an important brake to make sure that what we're hoping for happens: bringing all the parties together in different ways and doing that effectively.

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