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

I'm really grateful to the member for Wentworth for both raising it and the terms on which it's raised. I don't think it is possible to have a workable way of presenting an amendment to a formal meeting of COIL that we ultimately don't have carriage of. Amendments in the Senate, similar to when amendments have gone back and forth in the House sometimes—which happened a bit on the secure jobs, better pay bill and has happened probably in a more specific way with climate legislation in the House—continue to be varied up until quite close to the time, in which case what was presented to the COIL by the government effectively might not reflect what ends up being introduced.

I am certainly very open to working out what formal processes we can have to make sure that we get the benefit of a similar process. There's no doubt—and anyone who has held my job from either side of politics over the years will tell you—that the time lines of COIL are really frustrating and the outcomes are always helpful. That's something that will always be said. If there is a way of getting that sort of benefit for crossbench amendments, I'm interested in seeing how that might be able to be done. I don't think a direct replication of how it works for government can be done without taking away the effective rights of crossbench members and their agency over their own amendments. But I'm happy to, at the next meeting of the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council, raise the issue of the sorts of processes, even if they're conceptual, and where we can get the benefit of some of those processes, where an amendment is likely to be moved. It would, of course, have to be done in a way where it was really clear that it was still the right of the crossbench, that they might do something different—in which case the government would have to make a call—and that it couldn't be seen as a breach of trust. If we presented something radically different to the parliament to what we presented to COIL, it would be seen as a breach of trust unless the differences were what had been raised at COIL. So, if we can find a way of doing that, of getting some benefit from that sort of process, then I'm certainly open to it, and I'm happy to give the member for Wentworth an undertaking that I will take that up and explore how it might be possible to deal with the principles or policies that we think are likely to come through from crossbench amendments.

Question agreed to.

Bill agreed to.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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