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

I have not intervened in the cross-play between the government and the opposition, but I remind both the government and the opposition, firstly, that we have a substantial number of amendments, which we flagged very early in this debate; and, secondly, I will have specific questions on the amendments of both the government and the opposition. I would like to take the opportunity while I can to point out to Senator Abetz that he may care to read the minority report of the Australian Greens a little more closely, because at the bottom of page 182, under ‘right of entry’, we address the matter of conscientious objection certificates.

I have a question for the government about jurisdiction. I will have a host of other questions around specific amendments throughout the debate. The Greens raised the issue of jurisdiction not only in our minority report but also in my speech in the second reading debate. The use of the corporations power originally created a mess under Work Choices, and it continues to through its use under the Fair Work Bill. For example, local government and social and community service sector employees will still have no clarity as to what jurisdiction they are in. This came up in a large number of the submissions to the Senate inquiry, of which—Senator Abetz was right—I was an extremely active participant. This issue also came up in oral evidence. For the social and community sectors in particular, this can change on a regular basis, depending on how much income they receive from what can be characterised as trading activities. At one point they may be in the federal system and at another point in time, potentially, the state system. We believe this is unacceptable, as did the community organisations that raised the matter with the committee.

While we appreciate that the government is working towards a unitary system by the referral of powers, this is not going to help non-federal-system employees in, for example, my home state of Western Australia, where the industrial relations minister, Troy Buswell, has made it clear that the WA government will not refer powers. Minister Buswell has called for individual agreements—that is, AWAs—to be offered as conditions of employment. This came up during the committee inquiry in Perth. Can the government please update us on progress towards a national system, and can the government indicate whether it has considered or is considering a mechanism for state employees to opt into the federal system, similar to provisions in the Industrial Relations Act 1988?