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

But I don't bag the Senate. Maybe it's because I was briefly in an upper house in the state parliament. But the process of an inquiry, particularly on a bill like this—of getting stakeholders to make submissions, of getting cross-party conversation to say what amendments might improve things here and then to get the report and to make amendments as a result—does land you in better legislation. And the Senate inquiry was probably pretty close to ready to report. If you look at their hearing schedule, they may well have been able to report next week. They probably could have. Why will they not? Because the Liberal and National parties voted that they are not allowed to. Even if they are ready to report, they are not allowed to, and they're not allowed to because those opposite changed the rule from 'report by 1 February' to 'must not report before 1 February'. That looks to me like a delaying tactic. It looks like this entire charade is nothing but a delaying tactic for the opposition. I don't have that view of why Senator Lambie has participated in it or why Senator Pocock or Senator Tyrrell have participated in it. But I'll tell you what: it's exactly why Senator Cash was all over it. It's exactly why the Liberal Party and the National Party were suddenly all in on provisions they had never supported and, when they had a chance to debate the bill, provisions they never referenced. What do they want to delay? They want to delay legislation that will close loopholes and make sure people are paid properly. With everything that is happening with cost of living at the moment, that will never be our position.

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