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

It could happen. I do not want to be confined to particular examples, but it could happen to a particular section of an industry which was suffering severe economic conditions at the time, depending on the circumstances. These are matters that would have to be put before the AIRC as a case, and you would have to persuade the AIRC—or, following on from that, Fair Work Australia—to accept those arguments. My recollection is, unless the advisers can tell me otherwise, that many of these types of arguments have been run in commissions over many, many years. Significant drought might be another example—a lengthy, sustained drought where exceptional circumstances have applied and the industry is suffering significant hardship as a consequence. You could imagine those types of arguments would be examples of where the commission may take that into account.