Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate that the government is opposing amendments (4) to (8) and (11). The principal amendments moved by Senator Siewert are really amendments (4), (5) and (6), which, in effect, require that all workplace agreements operate from approval. The government’s position is that workplace agreements for new employees—that is, new employee ITEAs or greenfields agreements—should apply on lodgement to provide certainty for these parties. Other agreements, such as ITEAs for existing employees and union or employee collective agreements, will only operate from approval. These are transitional measures which reflect the move from the lodgement-only system under Work Choices to the Labor government’s new workplace relations system from 2010. As Senator Siewert is no doubt aware, under that new system all workplace agreements will be assessed and approved by Fair Work Australia. In effect, amendments (7), (8) and (11) are, in great part, dependent on the primary set of amendments being passed and therefore we would oppose those as well.