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

Due to the time I moved them all together. I would have called a division on third-party harm, but given the lateness of the hour I did not. I would like to note that for the record. I move Australian Greens amendment (49) on sheet 5729:

(49)  Clause 596, page 470 (line 16), at the end of subclause (4), add:

      ; or (d)    is a lawyer from a community legal centre.

This amendment relates to community legal centre lawyers being exempt from leave requirements. I appreciate that we have already dealt with some of these issues in one of Senator Xenophon’s amendments, but we believe that community legal centre lawyers should also be given an exemption from leave requirements. The community legal centres recommended that their lawyers be exempt from the need to seek leave to appear before FWA. The Employment Law Centre of WA gave evidence to the Senate inquiry that, given the profile of their clients—particularly vulnerable workers—they should be exempt from this extra requirement. We were persuaded by their arguments and propose an amendment to exempt lawyers from community legal centres in the same way as lawyers from unions and employer organisations are exempt. We are concerned that the people represented by community legal centres—as I said, these are often the most vulnerable workers—do not have union representation. For example, the Employment Law Centre of WA does not represent any workers that have union representation. Community legal centres play a very important role in helping to protect vulnerable workers. We believe it is sensible that they should also be exempt from the leave requirement. They are essentially representing their clients in the same way lawyers from unions are. We would very strongly urge the government to accept this amendment. We believe that it is reasonable and practical to exempt the community legal centres from having to seek leave.