Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I notice that the key players in the committee stage are just taking their positions and getting their documents together, which gives me a couple of moments to address the bill while that happens. As soon as we are in a position to go directly to the question before the chair, I will end my remarks. I did want to take this opportunity to talk about the process that got us here today. The bill before us was the subject of wide consultation while we as a party were in opposition and it was something we sought a mandate for in some very specific terms and in some very general terms as well.

In government, we then undertook a very comprehensive process, consulting all of the parties that have an interest in industrial relations in this country, including academics, employers and unions. We went through a very exhaustive COIL process and consultation process with those stakeholders. A draft bill was in front of people and they had an opportunity to look at how that worked. We made significant changes to the bill in the process to try to accommodate any of the major concerns that the stakeholders may have had. We then, of course, presented the bill to the parliament. Naturally, with a bill of this size and substance, the Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations conducted an inquiry. I want to commend the senators that participated in that inquiry—