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

The Greens will be supporting these amendments. We do not think they go far enough in respect to sweatshops, although we acknowledge that the amendment that Senator Xenophon has managed to persuade the government on is a step in the right direction. As we said in our minority report, we think parliament must use the opportunity presented by this bill to get regulation of the TCF industry and outworkers right. It has been an ongoing issue and I know that generally there has been cross-party recognition of the issues around the TCF industry and outworkers. We believe that parliament has acknowledged there do need to be special protections for these vulnerable workers. As I said earlier we are not satisfied the government amendments do what they need to do to ensure adequate protection of TCF outworkers and sweatshop workers.

The right of entry is a particularly important issue in the TCF industry, as has already been outlined by Senator Xenophon, with well-recognised compliance concerns. Unions must have the capacity to exercise appropriate right of entry in relation to outworkers and people working in sweatshops. We are particularly pleased to see in the revised sheet at amendments (21) to (23) that the government has removed, as Senator Xenophon has just said, the requirement for 24 hours notice for entry relating to TCF workers. The committee heard, again as Senator Xenophon articulated, a great deal of evidence about how the 24 hours notice requirement was inappropriate for TCF workers, where the setup can be very mobile and a notice period can often lead to a sweatshop no longer existing in the same place. However we are not convinced the government’s amendments adequately address the recommendations of the majority Senate report in relation to TCF workers. We put the government on notice that we will be keeping a very close eye on whether they do in fact move to address all the issues that were raised in the majority report, particularly in relation to sweatshops, and we expect to see all these outstanding issues resolved.

I also would like to refer to the amendments moved and passed on Tuesday night on sheet PV414, which also addressed the issues around outworkers. As I indicated, we are very supportive of the amendments as an attempt to deal with the important issues raised by the TCFUA over definitions and the protection of award provisions. However, again, we are not convinced that the amendments passed were, in fact, adequate and we are concerned to ensure that all relevant award conditions are protected. Similarly to the right of entry provisions, we will be keeping a close eye on the government to make sure all these outstanding issues are resolved. I would particularly like to mention and thank Asian Women at Work for the excellent evidence that they gave to the inquiry. I think that the issues they raised were particularly important and they gave very clear examples of why these sorts of provisions are absolutely essential. I indicate that the Greens will be supporting these amendments.