Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. The New South Wales Liberal Party bill requires New South Wales Industrial Relations to enforce government policy declared by regulation relating to wages and conditions of employment not just for New South Wales public-sector workers but for a broader definition including teachers, nurses and firefighters. While the current focus of the bill is on capping pay rises, it allows the government to unilaterally set the wages and conditions of all its public-sector employees. It reduces the independent umpire to a rubber stamp for the government wages policy, regardless of what the policy dictates. New South Wales workers will be second-class citizens with no rights to an independent umpire.