Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer and Acting Prime Minister. I refer to advice circulated by Industrial Labour Solutions, a Melbourne industrial relations consultancy, promoting the use of independent contractors, which states:

By engaging Independent Contractors;

Pay rates are no longer tied to EBA requirements.

Redundancy payments are abolished.

EBA restrictions are removed.

What has the government told Industrial Labour Solutions about the content of its proposed independent contractors legislation? Isn’t the attack upon wages and conditions through this legislation the reason the government has recently refused the states’ request to see a draft of the bill prior to its introduction?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Obviously, I do not know what has been said to that particular company, but I can say that independent contractors have long been a feature of the Australian workplace. It is not as if this is something new. It is not as if independent contractors just appeared after the Work Choices legislation was passed.

Independent contractors have a very valuable place and role to play in the Australian economy. Let me give an example. The domestic house-building industry in Australia is probably the most efficient in the world. It runs almost entirely on independent contractors. A brickie comes in and does the brickwork, a chippie comes in and does the carpentry and a tiler comes in and does the tiling work. It works for the house-building industry and it works for the contractors. It has given Australia one of the best systems in the world. It existed before Work Choices. Independent contractors add enormously to the Australian economy.