Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is the nub of it, Senator Lundy, and you know that. You want these independent contractors to be subject to the industrial relations regime when, in fact, it is a separate commercial arrangement and that should be noted and acknowledged. Minister Andrews put it this way during his second reading speech. I am going to note it for the senators on the other side and, indeed, for members of the public. He said:

State deeming laws have become so absurd that they can result in completely arbitrary distinctions—an independent contractor who drives a bus can be deemed an employee, while a taxi driver is not; or a person who packages goods under a contract for services is deemed to be an employee if they do so at their home, but not if they do so on business premises; a blind installer is deemed to be an employee but a plumber is not.

The existing regulation of independent contracting across many of the states is a regulation of entrepreneurship. It is job destroying.

Minister Andrews is correct. The approach that Labor is taking to this bill is job destroying. As I said earlier, what we are trying to build in Australia is a spirit of entrepreneurship, a spirit of enterprise. I would like to see Australia leading the world in providing the foundation for the growth in enterprise, the growth in entrepreneurs. It is something of which we, as a country, can be proud. As a member of the government, I am certainly proud of the efforts to make that happen.

Senator Siewert also made a number of comments about the workplace relations legislation amendments in terms of them being thrown into the Senate and that she had little notice. I want to remind Senator Siewert and other senators opposite and elsewhere that this was based on a government announcement on 13 November this year.