Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Lalor for putting forward this motion. It provides me with the opportunity to advise the House on why I think the member's sentiments are misplaced at best. Again, it boils down to the Albanese government's failure to listen to the needs of rural Australia and to listen to the bush. It's another classic example of Canberra trying to ram city bureaucracy down the throats of hardworking rural businesses and their workers.

It's little wonder that small businesses right across the north-west, the west coast and King Island are frightened. It's little wonder that our advanced manufacturers are frightened. It's little wonder that our building sector, our transport sector, our ag sector and our fishing sector are worried about the impacts of Labor's IR agenda and the ongoing viability of their businesses. These businesses are the lifeblood of our region. This is something that Labor struggles to understand. In rural Australia, a lot of the time it's just one or two of these businesses that form the very backbone of an entire community. The government must continue to support these businesses to keep them viable, not to tie them up and reduce their productivity with more red tape.

If Labor had bothered to ask anyone in the bush about managing workforce challenges then they would have known that flexibility is key. I think it's important to remind the Canberra bureaucracy that not everybody clocks on at nine and knocks off at five. Across the north-west, the west coast and King Island we can't afford to have a 'clock on, clock off' mentality. We'd go broke. In our region, we've got a 'do the job' mentality—a 'complete the job and get it done' mentality. I could spend the next three minutes listing the names of business owners that have never clocked off in their working lives. They work 24/7, around the clock.

In that vein, I recently went along to a regional meeting of our Master Builders association in Devonport. It was a great meeting. There were a roomful of builders, and if they tell me that they've got a problem then I listen. The problem is Labor's proposed IR reforms. In the electorate of Braddon, there are just over 1,000 small building and construction businesses. Between them they employ around 4,000 tradies. That's about nine per cent of the population. For the benefit of those opposite, I feel obliged to explain how the building and construction industry actually works. We have a building sector that is a very complex, very finely tuned, well-balanced and highly efficient system of business owners, apprentices, independent contractors and subbies. That's right: subcontractors.. Yet Labor believes this successful, time-proven model needs changing—changing from a model that is flexible, independent and responsive to one that is rigid, beholden to union movements and bound by red tape.

At this meeting, I was told that Labor's proposed IR reforms are one of the worst possible things that could ever happen to the building and construction industry in the state of Tasmania. Independent contractors and subbies could find themselves subject to changes which would ultimately force them to relinquish their autonomy and become employees. This would mean they would lose their freedom to choose their working hours, their projects and their clients and their ability to negotiate their own fees and conditions. One subcontractor said that he hopes that 'the people responsible for bringing this new legislation will be held 100 per cent accountable when the construction industry is totally destroyed'.

It's never a good time for government to make it harder for business owners. It's never a good time for governments to make it harder for workers or jobseekers to find flexible employment that suits their specific needs and their own requirements. Yet that is exactly what the Albanese government is proposing. Well, I'm proposing more utes and fewer suits.

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