Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I table a revised explanatory memorandum relating to the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009 and move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009

The Fair Work Act 2009, which received Royal Assent on 7 April, delivers on the promise that Labor made at the 2007 election to get rid of the Work Choices laws and to create a new fair and balanced workplace relations system.

The Fair Work Act introduces the new workplace relations system which will allow Australians to meet the challenges of today and grasp the promise of the future without forgetting the commitment to fairness and decency at work that has made us who and what we are.

The new workplace relations system created by the Fair Work Act starts from 1 July 2009 and will be fully operational by 1 January 2010.

This new system will be overseen by a modern, accessible and independent industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia.

This Bill, and the other bill being introduced today—the Fair Work (State Referral and Consequential and Other Amendments) Bill 2009—set out essential changes to ensure a sensible and measured transition by employers and employees into the new system.

Given the impending commencement dates for the new system, the expeditious passage of this legislation is critical.

The new workplace relations system will balance the needs of employees and employers.

This balance reflects the unprecedented degree of consultation conducted by this Government with employee and employer representatives as well as with state and territory governments.

Representatives from these groups provided valuable feedback at meetings of the Committee on Industrial Legislation which examined these two bills as well as having also examined the Fair Work Act itself.

The Deputy Prime Minister, when introducing the then Fair Work Bill 2008 into the Parliament on 25 November 2008, indicated that the Government would introduce separate legislation to set out transitional and consequential changes to ensure a smooth, simple and fair transition to the new system while providing for certainty in employment arrangements.

These transitional and consequential changes are provided for in these two bills which were passed by the House of Representatives on 2 June 2009.

Once enacted by the Parliament, these two bills will operate with the Fair Work Act and will transition employees and employers into the new workplace relations system simply and fairly.

Let me now outline the key provisions of the bills to the Senate.

The Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009

This Bill repeals the current Workplace Relations Act 1996 other than schedule 1, which deals with registered organisations, and schedule 10, which deals with transitional registered associations.

The Workplace Relations Act will then be renamed the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009.

With the abolition of the remainder of that Act, we will see the final removal of the Work Choices system that the Australian electorate rejected at the last election.

The Bill provides for the application of the 10 statutory National Employment Standards and minimum wages to all national system employees from 1 January 2010, including those covered by instruments made before the commencement of the new system.

Employees must receive at least the minimum rate of pay contained in a modern award from 1 January 2010.

The Bill also ensures that employees’ take-home pay is not reduced as a result of any transition to a modern award from 1 January 2010.

Rules are set out in relation to the treatment of existing industrial instruments in the new system and includes arrangements to enable bargaining under the new system to commence in an orderly way.

Arrangements are included for the transfer of assets, functions and proceedings from Workplace Relations Act institutions to Fair Work Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The bill includes rules to enable state-registered associations to participate in the new federal workplace relations system.

There is provision for Fair Work Australia to conduct a bedding-down review of modern awards after two years of their operation—that is, from 1 January 2012—ahead of the regular four-yearly review cycle. This will allow any necessary refinements to modern awards to be made to ensure that they are meeting the modern award objectives and are operating effectively without anomalies or technical problems.

Finally, the Bill also includes consequential amendments to create the fair work divisions of the Federal Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia.

Amendments to Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments Bill

On 19 March 2009 the Senate referred this Bill to the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, which reported back to the Senate on 7 May 2009.

The Government carefully considered the Senate committee’s report as well as the detailed submissions.

As a result, when the legislation was being considered in the House of Representatives on 2 June 2009 the Government sought and secured approval for a number of technical amendments to improve the Bill.

Among the changes approved by the House of Representatives were amendments which respond to recommendations outlined in the Senate committee report and whose purpose is to:

• ensure that special low-paid workplace determinations are accessible to workplaces that no longer have an operating collective agreement, providing the other criteria are satisfied;
• ensure that the transitional arrangements in place for outworkers protect their existing terms and conditions and that outworker unions can properly enforce outworker entitlements;
• ensure that registered employee and employer organisations are able to represent their members in the Fair Work Divisions of the Federal Court and the Federal Magistrates Court;
• clarify that Fair Work Australia may make representation orders with respect to threatened, impending or probable disputes between unions about the representation of employees; and
• preserve the existing interaction rules between transitional instruments and state and territory laws.

Other changes to improve the original Bill and ensure that it operates as intended included amendments which:

• ensure continuity and certainty of terms for staff transferring from Workplace Relations Act institutions to the new Fair Work institutions; and
• require the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to take account of the state of the national economy in completing award modernisation.

Some workplace relations stakeholders suggested during the Senate committee processes that Fair Work Australia should be able to commence modernising enterprise instruments prior to January 2010.

The Government agrees that this would be desirable and accordingly amended the Bill in the House of Representatives to enable Fair Work Australia to receive applications to make a modern enterprise award or to terminate an existing enterprise instrument from 1 July 2009.

However, any modern enterprise award or any decision to terminate an existing enterprise instrument will not come into effect until the new modern award system commences on 1 January 2010.

Other changes to the Bill in the House reflect aspects of the agreements reached with Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding for the passage of the now Fair Work Act.

These amendments:

• add a further clause to the object of the Fair Work Act that acknowledges the special circumstances of small and medium sized employers; and
• provide for a review of the first three years of operation of the new unfair dismissal system.

Let me conclude this overview of the amendments to the original Bill by reiterating that the Government’s intention, through the extensive consultations with stakeholders and through the Senate and Senate committee process, was to seek and act on their views in order to improve and clarify the Bill.

The amendments that I have just outlined reflect this intention.

Fair Work (State Referral and Consequential and Other Amendments) Bill 2009

With the indulgence of the Senate I will now provide an overview of the key provisions of the other related bill being introduced today, the Fair Work (State Referral and Consequential and Other Amendments) Bill 2009.

This Bill marks the next step in the creation of the national workplace relations system for the private sector in Australia, which is a key election commitment of this Government.

Progress in creating the framework for a new national system is good news for Australia because this is a system based on fairness for working people, flexibility for business and the promotion of productivity and economic growth for the future prosperity of our nation.

This Bill will amend the Fair Work Act to enable states to refer matters to the Commonwealth with a view to establishing a uniform national workplace relations system for the private sector.

The Bill in addition makes transitional arrangements for Victorian employees and employers who are currently covered by the Workplace Relations Act.

Further, the Bill will also amend the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009 and the Fair Work Act to implement a process for the making of State reference public sector modern awards.

In the first instance, these awards will cover public sector employers and employees that are within the scope of Victoria’s reference of power.

On 4 June 2009 the Fair Work (Commonwealth Powers) Bill was introduced into the Victorian Parliament. This bill provides a text based referral of power, to underpin the application of the Fair Work Act to all Victorian employers and their employees.

The Victorian bill has now passed through both chambers and is due to receive royal assent later this month.

This will ensure that there are no interruptions in coverage for the working people and businesses of Victoria.

Victoria is the first state that will be a referring state under this Bill.

I’m very pleased to note, however, that both South Australia and Tasmania have reached in principle agreement with the Australian Government to participate in the new system for the private sector and are now negotiating final details.

I also note that Queensland has indicated in-principle support for joining a national workplace relations system for the private sector, subject to a number of key issues being resolved.

The Bill establishes a framework that can be adapted in future Commonwealth legislation to accommodate anticipated future referrals from other states.

Consistent with Government policy, the Bill enables referring states to decide the extent to which their public sector workforces should be covered by the new system.

The Bill’s amendment reference provisions will enable the Fair Work Act to be amended to apply to all employers and employees in a referring state uniformly.

We are continuing to work cooperatively with all the states to achieve a uniform workplace relations system for the private sector.

Over the coming months, we anticipate that they will choose to become participants in implementing this crucial national reform.

Finally, the Bill also makes transitional and consequential amendments to 67 Commonwealth acts which refer to parts of the Workplace Relations Act that will be repealed by the Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments Bill.

This Bill replaces references to concepts, institutions and instruments in the Workplace Relations Act with references to corresponding concepts, institutions and instruments in the Fair Work Act. This includes changing references from the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and the Australian Fair Pay Commission to Fair Work Australia.

Conclusion

The arrangements set out in the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendment Bill and in the related bill being introduced today will ensure that the transition to the new workplace relations system created by the Fair Work Act is seamless.

The sensible and practical measures in this Bill will ensure an orderly and fair transition to the balanced, modern workplace relations system for Australia that the Government promised in 2007.

As the Deputy Prime Minister announced in the House of Representatives debate on these two bills, the death rites of Work Choices are now being administered and we are getting ready to see the Fair Work Act and Fair Work Australia spring into life starting on 1 July 2009.

Given that the Australian people voted for new workplace relations laws at the last election, the Government continues to hope that Opposition Senators do not seek to hang on to Work Choices through procedural delays but will instead unequivocally heed and respond to the voice of the Australian people by expediting passage of this legislation so that the new system can commence on time on 1 July this year.

I commend this Bill to the Senate.

Fair Work (State Referral and Consequential and Other Amendments) Bill 2009

A few minutes ago I provided the Senate with an overview of the rationale and key features of this Bill.

The State Referral and Consequential and Other Amendments Bill offers clear proof that the Government is well on its way to fulfilling its commitment to achieving, through cooperation and in consultation with state governments, a uniform national workplace relations system for the private sector in Australia.

I commend this Bill to the Senate.

Debate (on motion by Senator Sherry) adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.