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

With all due respect—and I appreciate that Senator Abetz wants to continue to make a range of political points—I have responded on a number of occasions to this general issue. I have said on a number of occasions that we are delivering on our election commitments. I have said on a number of occasions that under Labor’s legislation we will ensure that there is a real no disadvantage test—not the so-called fairness test that existed under the previous government. We will remove from this system going forward the ability to enter into AWAs in which penalty rates, overtime and a range of other conditions are stripped away.

I have gone through some of the statistics which the previous government sought to hide from the Australian people that demonstrate the full extent of the unfairness of some of the AWAs which were put in place under the system that Senator Abetz championed. The bill before the chamber delivers on the government’s election commitments and we would like to proceed to vote on it. Senator Murray, I accept your point: I think oppositions and crossbenchers are absolutely entitled to probe legislation. The point we have made is we have an opposition which says it does not oppose this legislation and which, to my reading—and I was just checking again the Senate report—has not, in fact, proposed any amendments. That is the context of this: it is not a constructive discussion about accountability in this chamber; the opposition are seeking to play out a political process on a bill that they said they are not going to oppose. I was simply making that point, but I take the point you are making.