Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of those amendments. I want to take up a statement that the minister made then about wanting to create a level playing field for businesses that are in competition. My concern is that the flipside could also be true. Sometimes businesses do compete on wages and they are competing for talent by offering better wages. The concern is that the unintended consequence here is that it actually prevents that sort of competition if one competitor can be dragged into a bargain with its competitor and is no longer able to compete by offering better terms and conditions to those employees. That is the sort of unintended consequence that I am concerned about and that my electorate is concerned about that requires greater consideration of the issues and of what might come out of the legislation, as evidenced by the numerous amendments that have been put by the government and other sides that shows that, really, we need to take some time to think about this. I'd just put that to the minister.

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