Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

There is, and I have just signed it. I'll put this into context. We have a larger omnibus bill that is being debated in this chamber and will go through to the Senate at a later date. The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations is very aware of the public comment that there are many contentious parts of the ominous bill. I acknowledge that it will get voted through this House, but the Senate has already reflected that many areas of the ominous bill will have a lot of debate and a lot of amendments. A lot of things will go on. That bill, as the minister said, will probably look nothing like it does now. It's very common, as the minister said, to have an IR piece of legislation that doesn't have amendments in the Senate and goes off to committee and then a whole lot of other things happen.

What we're talking about now is a private senator's bill that has come to the House from the Senate. There are four elements of the larger omnibus bill that the Senate has passed already. They have said: 'There will be no amendments to this part of the legislation. We're good with this. We see this is important for workers.' That chamber has passed that and sent it to us.

We're saying to the government: 'We know that four elements of your larger omnibus bill are going to be accepted by that chamber with no amendments.' The minister should be ecstatic about this. No minister really wants to see amendments to their legislation. This special IR legislation is going to go through with no amendments. So the government and the minister have a choice today. They can say: 'There are contentious parts of the ominous bill. There will be a lot of amendments moved. There will be committees and delay. The benefits for workers may not happen until well into next year.' So the minister and the government have the choice today to pass the four elements in this chamber, knowing they will pass the Senate as well.

This motion is about the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (First Responders) Bill 2023. We had one about the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency) Bill 2023 before. I'll just touch on what this bill is. This change will simplify workers compensation systems and will provide, unless proven otherwise, the presumption that PTSD suffered by first responders was likely contributed to by their employment as a first responder. That's obviously a great part of the larger omnibus bill. We support that part of the bill. We support and think that it's important for first responders to be appropriately protected and have access to workers compensation systems easily and in a timely manner. That's what the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (First Responders) Bill 2023 is about.

I acknowledge what the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations said earlier—that we may be perceived as being pre-emptive and that we may be perceived as not allowing the Senate to have normal due process. If I were the minister and the government, I would say: 'This is a really important part of the larger omnibus bill. This is an opportunity for the government to get this particular section of the larger bill through this chamber today.' Given that the government has the opportunity right now to pass this bill in this chamber, I would say that all first responders would say that the government should do that. Yes, it might not be the normal process. Yes, it is a private senator's bill that has come from the Senate, which is not the normal convention. Yes, it is before some committee processes have happened. Will there be amendments moved on this particular section of the bill in the Senate? Maybe not. Maybe everyone will say that this is exactly how it should be worded or written.

I would say to the government and to the minister that this is a really important section of this larger bill. I would say to the government and to the minister that I think every first responder in this country would say that they think you should support this bill. I support the motion put by the Manager of Opposition Business.

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