Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

Can the minister explain further—given that we all agree that small business needs to be able to collectively bargain together—other than saying there is a whole realm of changes with the Trade Practices Act and a lot of other bits and pieces? The Senate debated this issue recently, and for some reason the government seems to want to pass collective bargaining only on the basis that we make it easier for big business to merge. That is what was discussed here previously. I am trying to work out why the government would not want to support this amendment given that the last time this issue came up in the Senate it was only tying it to allow mergers to make it easier for big business to merge, and that was knocked back. Would it not seem rational or reasonable to expect that, if this bill goes ahead, it will basically take away any restrictions on the big end of town, and the small independents will need to be able to collectively bargain together?

This amendment makes it easier for small businesses to get together. It takes away the time and a lot of the effort and the burden that they have with that application process. Clearly, it would make it lot easier for small business. I do not understand how the minister could tie it to something else, because it stands on its own. We are talking about small businesses being able to collectively bargain, and you are tying it to a lot of other stuff. It does not make sense to me. I wonder if you can explain it so that it does.