Judith Troeth (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like Senator Fielding, I thought very hard about what I would do during that amendment because I too, particularly during my experience as previous Chair of the Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Legislation Committee, had dealings with the outworkers during the last round of industrial relations legislation. I would suggest to the government that, when the legislation goes back to the House of Representatives, they look at arming the ombudsman with more power to deal with some of the endemic problems within the outworker industry. We on this side see the amendment that has just been voted on as probably giving too much power to the union in that sense. But we would like to strengthen the role of the ombudsman. I suggest something along the lines of a flying squad or something within the ombudsman’s office to specifically deal with the problem of low-paid non-English-speaking background workers who are paid a very low rate of wages and who do not necessarily belong to the union. I think the coalition would be able to view this, without speaking for anyone but myself, more favourably. I hope that can be looked at.