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

For the benefit of the House, the description that was given of what section 29 says was wrong, and the description of what section 21 says is wrong. I don't know if that means he's moving something different, or whether what's been circulated is right and he gave the wrong speech. I think we can work on the basis that this amendment is not ready. I think we can also work on the basis that—

Honourable members interjecting—

I'm sure there are going to be more contributions, particularly from the crossbench—and this debate will continue into the Senate—on how you reasonably define a 'small business', and there is a reasonable conversation to be had there. But this amendment says small business exemptions should be given to anyone with up to 200 employees. 'Up to 200 employees' should be the definition of a small business! They've also attempted to take out altogether the low-paid-stream access to bargaining. So everything that's been said about feminised industries, about child care, about aged care, about getting wages moving in these sectors—they're taking all of that out. They also want to define a small business as 200 employees. On top of that, they're not quite sure what they're moving. We'll be opposing this.

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