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

It was set out in a press release by Minister Andrews in which he made the objectives of those amendments very clear to all and sundry. That is what happened. I will tell you what they related to. They addressed unintended consequences arising from the operation of the act since it came in on 27 March and introduced protections for redundancy entitlements and new provisions dealing with the standing down of employees. That is set out; it is on the public record and it has been for several weeks now.

Yes, you oppose many of the provisions that were announced, and that is your right and entitlement—we live in a democracy—but I think those particular amendments are actually very sensible. Do you know why that is? It is because we have had feedback from the community with respect to improving the bill. We have a concept of continual improvement in our government—Senator Marshall has a wry smile on his face, but that is exactly right—and we have listened to the community, particularly to small business.

I want to acknowledge and support Minister Andrews and his efforts with respect to record keeping requirements. This is one of the amendments before the Senate and which was announced several weeks ago. I want to thank those small business operators that contacted me in my role as deputy chair of the Prime Minister’s workplace relations task force and, indeed, as a member of the Senate Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Education.

I want to thank the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for their feedback on the legislation, particularly for expressing their concern about the record keeping requirements. I also want to thank the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association and their members, the Master Builders Association and their members, the Small Business Council of Tasmania and many others for expressing their views. It was not only those organisations but also small and microbusiness operators in and around Tasmania that expressed their views. And guess what? Those views were acknowledged, they were listened to and they were acted upon. This is democracy in action, and it is continuous improvement in action. This legislation will remove significant administrative burdens for those small business operators, and regulatory arrangements will be improved. There will still be some record keeping requirements, but essentially we have lifted the red tape so that small business can get on and do the job that they want to do.

The other provisions relate to redundancy, providing protections for workers and, in my view, an improvement of the status quo. There are provisions relating to stand-downs and the operation of the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. The details are set out in the legislation.

Finally, I want to wrap up by saying that this legislation does not override the protections for owner-drivers in New South Wales and Victoria. The government believes that protections applying to owner-drivers in those states should not be disturbed at this stage, but there will be a review. The minister has announced that there will be a review of owner-driver arrangements. That will be undertaken with a view to achieving national consistency, if possible. I hope that that does happen; I think it would be a good thing. The review will begin next year, and I strongly support it. I have supported it both privately and publicly, and I think it would be better for all of us across this country to have a national approach to this matter. All in all, I believe this is good legislation. It will underpin the importance of enterprise and entrepreneurship in this country, and it will provide further encouragement to that—which is exactly what the Howard government is all about. (Time expired)