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

Thank you. I do appreciate that if you have further information you will come back to us. We could stand here going backwards and forwards arguing for hours about what is appropriate to put in this bill and what is not as you start the process, but I will not indulge in that. I will go on to my first amendment which is on sheet 5451. This relates to awards coverage. These awards have fundamentally changed under Work Choices and this bill. There are no longer any opportunities for parties to create new awards. Therefore, there is no ability, except through the modernisation process, for award coverage to be extended.

Evidence before the Senate committee, as I understand it, indicated that 10 per cent of employees currently have no award coverage. Given the historical award coverage is industry and occupations based, we can assume that in the future new industries and occupations may come into existence and may not be covered by an award. We do not see why these employees should be without part of the safety net. We do not believe that it is sufficient for the award modernisation request to leave it to the discretion of the AIRC as to whether or not award coverage is extended to all employees. The changed nature of awards and their role in the safety net means that it is an imperative that award coverage is as complete as possible, and this amendment is how we seek to do that. We seek to extend award coverage to employees that may not be covered. That is what this amendment is about. I will also take this opportunity to ask—and I am anticipating that the government ain’t going to like this—whether it is something that is being considered for the substantive bill.