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

We had just about got through this last night. These amendments are about making sure that we are helping independents—a lot of them are basically small businesses—to collectively bargain, streamlining the process, lightening their load and making it easier for them. The reason this is so important is that if this Petroleum Retail Legislation Repeal Bill 2006 goes ahead, it will see the independents being squeezed out of the market even more because of very few restrictions placed on the regulation of service stations across Australia.

I appeal to senators to think about this particular amendment, which is all about collective bargaining, making it easier, streamlining it. The Senate had voted on something similar in a previous Trade Practices Act amendment, and it thought that streamlining collective bargaining for small businesses made sense. This is all about pursuing that at a time when we are discussing legislation for petrol stations and retailing of petrol, which is a very important issue for Australian families.