Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Greens amendments (3), (6), (8) and (18) on sheet 5285 together:

(3)    Schedule 1, item 1, page 5 (lines 16 to 24), omit the definition of salary in subsection 346B(1).

(6)    Schedule 1, item 1, page 7 (line 9) to page 8 (line 25), omit section 346E and the note, substitute:

346E  Workplace Authority Director must apply the fairness test to all workplace agreements

                 The Workplace Authority Director must decide under section 346M whether every AWA and collective agreement lodged after 27 March 2006 passes the fairness test.

(8)    Schedule 1, item 1, page 10 (line 3) to page 15 (line 17), omit sections 346G to 346L.

(18)  Schedule 1, item 1, page 17 (lines 16 to 23), omit paragraphs 346N(3)(a) and (b), substitute:

             (a)    before the Workplace Authority Director decides whether a workplace agreement passes the fairness test, a variation was lodged, the Workplace Authority Director is required to decide whether the workplace agreement as varied passes the test;

These amendments relate to the fairness test as it applies to all workplace agreements. They rewrite subdivision B, essentially providing that the Workplace Authority Director must apply the test to all workplace agreements lodged after 27 March 2006. The amendments also remove the date limit in the bill of 7 May 2007 and the salary limit for AWAs of $75,000. My first question is: does the government, by moving the bill, now acknowledge that there were agreements lodged between 27 March 2006 and 7 May 2007 which are unfair and which in fact would not pass the fairness test?