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

It seems the true colours of the opposition are coming out, with threats and the like. In Forward with Fairness, we said Labor undertook to retain the concept of enterprise-level bargaining. We have done that in the objects of the bill that we are putting forward. We have noted that such bargaining would be available in ‘a single business or employer, a group of related businesses operating as a single business or a discrete undertaking, site or project’. That is clear, that is in the objects and we do not see any merit in amending the clause in the terms that the opposition have put forward. The amendment that has been suggested would replace a reference to ‘achieving productivity and fairness through enterprise-level collective bargaining’ with ‘achieving productivity and fairness through workplace-level bargaining’. ‘Enterprise-level bargaining’ is a term that has longstanding meaning within the industrial relations area. It is one that has been in legislative objects before. We think that, for consistency and for the reasons I have already outlined, it should remain.