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

My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Minister, I refer you to the Industrial Relations Commission’s recent decision that, under Work Choices, a company can sack a worker and readvertise the same job on a much lower salary. The commission revealed that, under Work Choices, it does not have to consider whether a valid reason existed as long as the sacking was for ‘operational reasons’, which is much broader than the ‘operational requirements’ which used to apply. Minister, given that Minister Hockey has publicly expressed alarm and admitted that this was not the intention of the legislation, will the government act to tighten Work Choices to prevent other employers engaging in sham redundancies and sacking Australian workers to save money?