Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to continue my remarks on the second reading debate on the Fair Work (State Referral and Consequential and Other Amendments) Bill 2009 and the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009 prior to the dinner break.

Leave granted.

Other industries consider that they suffer the same as the restaurant and catering industry, and they want to know why they cannot have the same as what the restaurant and catering industry seem to have got. Requesting that something happen is, of course, no guarantee that it will happen, and that is what the Deputy Prime Minister has done, but that is all she has done. Professor Ron McCallum, a respected professor of law, is reported as having said that Ms Gillard has now got extraordinary powers. He said: ‘In the modernising process it is the minister that has the power to direct. This modernising process gives the power to the minister to order the commission to do things.’ Requesting that the commission should is no guarantee that the commission will. So it is open to the Deputy Prime Minister to order the commission to do things. Don’t just require that the commission should; order that they must. If the Deputy Prime Minister really meant her promise that costs will not rise for employers and that employees will not be disadvantaged, then she must order the Industrial Relations Commission to bring that about.