Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

I finished by talking about the reform that award modernisation will bring and the benefits it will bring to business, especially small business. This has been a complaint that Australian businesses have had for many decades. They have talked about the thousands of awards, the criss-cross all over the country, the duplication and the red tape and they have requested a simpler system. That is what award modernisation is about. That is what we are attempting to do: the more than 2,400 awards coming down to under 150. That is going to bring absolute benefits to employers. As Senator Fisher knows because she has asked these questions many times, we have been working with industry and business to ensure that this is done in an orderly and responsible fashion.