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

I appreciate that many of the answers I will be receiving today are that these issues were discussed by the reference group. Be that as it may; they were still substantive issues that were brought up during the committee inquiry. I believe that these amendments are a much simpler and easier way of dealing with these issues rather than leaving it up to the other mechanisms that the minister outlined.

As I articulated earlier, we believe this makes this bill fairer and it goes beyond just the dismissal issue. It acknowledges that there are other things that can happen to employees beyond dismissal that are adverse to not only their working conditions but also their work. For example, if they are receiving fewer shifts then it is a similar form of dismissal—if they are doing less shift work and, therefore, less work. I do not understand why the government does not seek to close these loopholes seeing as this issue has been raised a number of times in relation to either the fairness test or the no disadvantage test.

Question negatived.