Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Can the minister confirm that last month the Office of the Employment Advocate issued a memo to staff stating:

Leave will not be approved for staff to participate in the National Day of Community Protest—

on 30 November. Can the minister indicate whether the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations or his office was consulted before the OEA issued this memo? Did the minister or his office request or approve the ban on leave at any stage? Does the minister consider it acceptable for government agencies to engage in such blatantly political behaviour and dictate what employees can do in their own free time?