Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—What we've seen throughout this parliament have been things that have well-intentioned purposes but have significant unintended consequences. A common factor in all of those is a lack of consultation. There can be no better example of poor consultation than in this process here. We've got this omnibus Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing the Loopholes) Bill 2023, which has lots of talking points that are designed to look well on social media tiles and to look well in speeches here that are then broadcast out. But it has serious consequences for people who are doing it tough, particularly small and medium businesses.

We have already seen reports today that the Reserve Bank is hinting that interest rates may have to rise even further on account of the horrible conflicts that we're seeing around the world. We are seeing families and small businesses being pushed to the edge, where they are asking this place for relief so that they can stay afloat. When it comes to the area of small business and productivity, the relationship that those who are taking risks have with their workers is a very important one. It's one that already has enormous complexity.

If we look to the Fair Work Act, it's already at over 1,000 pages. This omnibus bill seeks to add hundreds more to that sort of complexity. When we look small and medium business owners in the eye and say, 'We are helping you in this tough time,' this is isn't the way that that should be done. There are some legitimate things that are being closed in this omnibus bill, and they have our support. But they should have been carved out; they shouldn't have been lumped together in what we have here. There are many other businesses that are on the edge. They need our support so that they can stay afloat and continue to employ Australians. Thank you.

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