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

The Greens will be opposing this amendment. This amendment, if it went through, would effectively undermine the whole of the award modernisation process and would mean that every time the minister asked the AIRC to take into account other factors or to review a decision, as they did, for example, with the Clerks—Private Sector Award, basically all awards would have to be reviewed. We do not think that is acceptable. At the time that this was first debated, in March last year when the award modernisation process was started, we did express our concern. We recognised that this was an extremely complicated process. We indicated then our concerns about potential ministerial intervention and interference. This amendment takes that to the extreme. It is not something that we think we can support.

We also note that this is all about employers; it is not about looking at workers losing key conditions as a result of award modernisation. We have always said we are keen to ensure that there is a safety net for wages and conditions for workers, so this is not an amendment we will be supporting. We think it goes far too far. Having said that, we do recognise that there are issues. That is why we asked the government to agree to a review of the award modernisation process within two years not four years. The government has agreed to that. The minister has taken action, for example, in respect of the Clerks—Private Sector Award which, as I mentioned yesterday, would have exempted large numbers of employees. We think that there are provisions there if necessary. We do not think that this amendment should be supported because it basically undermines the whole process. If that is what the opposition is about then that is what would be achieved by this amendment.