Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

You will get an opportunity to respond in due course. What you are arguing for is being able to tinker with the agreement here, which will give the opportunity to the states and territories to say, ‘Look, the Commonwealth tinkered with it; why can’t we as well?’ You then immediately move right away from model OH&S legislation at the start gate—you do not even get out of the gate with model legislation that is uniform. That is what you are now sentencing us to. Do not expect the Rudd government to say, ‘We don’t want our legislation up in the form that we have put it forward.’ I do not have to support your amendment in this place. I can put my best foot forward, put the bill forward and put the reasons forward as to why we want it passed in the form that the intergovernmental agreement agreed upon. Of course this place is not a rubber stamp—the Senate can do what it wants. You can pass an amendment that you put up, but do not expect me to support it. We are not expecting the Senate to be a rubber stamp, but do not expect the government to support your amendments. The reason I am asking the Senate to support the legislation in the form that we have circulated is that the Commonwealth does not want to be the first to breach the IGA when we come to model legislation. We do not want numerous amendments to be made at the state level, because uniformity would be lost even before it started. That is the position that you are putting to us now—and I reject it, as is this government’s right and as is your right to amend it and start this process of what I would call the ring-around. That is what it will start. I ask you to reflect upon that.