Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As I understand it, the government are moving all their amendments in globo. I indicate on behalf of the opposition that we will not be opposing those amendments—suffice to observe that the government, not satisfied with having moved 120 amendments to their own legislation in the other place, are now in this place moving a further 20 amendments. One observation I will make—and I made comment about this in my speech on the second reading—is the shameless deal that was done at the end of the Fair Work Bill when the Senate had moved and agreed to a number of amendments and Ms Gillard refused to accept the Senate’s wish.

Unfortunately, Senator Fielding and Ms Gillard revisited the grave of Work Choices, re-dug the grave, threw in small business and jobs and then covered it over again. Senator Fielding and Ms Gillard at the time said, ‘What a wonderful deal we’ve done,’ and Senator Fielding said, ‘What a great deal we’ve done for small business.’ He had got out of the minister this cast-iron guarantee in relation to the definition of ‘small business’. So strong was the deal, so strong was the commitment of Ms Gillard, so in sync were Senator Fielding and Ms Gillard, that the definition of ‘small business’ for the purpose of unfair dismissal was not even thought about when they dealt with the transition bill in the House in the first draft and they did not think about it when they moved their 120 amendments in the House.

Then the transition bill finally finds its way into the Senate and they go: ‘Oopsie, we might need Senator Fielding’s vote again. Didn’t we make some deal with him on the night when we visited the graveyard and made that decision in the middle of the night?’ So all of a sudden, amongst all these amendments, is the amendment which will put into legislative form the deal that was undertaken with Senator Fielding. The fact that it has come at the eleventh hour into this place would suggest—and I would not want this to befall to anybody—that chances are, if Senator Fielding had a more serious injury than his crook ankle from playing soccer and was not able to get into this chamber at all, the Labor Party would not have even bothered to honour that agreement. That is the reality. That is the sort of contempt with which Family First and Senator Fielding have been treated.

The Senate is under time pressure. A lot of these amendments I in fact foreshadowed in my speech on the second reading as being vitally important for the government to move, and in fact the government have moved those amendments—a lot of them consequential. I just note that here, at this very late stage, allegedly with a very clear election policy et cetera, Labor are still bringing in amendments and explanatory memoranda on the run—and, of course, we now have a legislative framework that is bigger and more employment damaging than any other previous regime. Having made that comment in relation to one particular bracket of amendments, I will leave it at that and indicate that the coalition will not be opposing the amendments.