Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Just so we get this absolutely clear, the government is saying that ‘enterprise’, for the purposes of clause 3(f) of the bill, does include workplace bargaining on a separate project or a separate site, as detailed on page 13 of Forward with Fairness:

… ‘enterprise’ … may include a single business or employer … or a discrete undertaking, site or project.

In other words, an employer could have a number of sites, undertakings or projects, all of which could be included in the definition of ‘enterprise’. But of course ‘may include’ does not mean ‘needs to include’, and that is why we wanted the clarification with ‘workplace’. I think the point is that, if the government were concerned about enterprise bargaining at the workplace level, they would remove that doubt. I will be interested to hear the minister’s response.