Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This bill extends the operation of most provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 to all of those contract outworkers in the textile, clothing and footwear industry—which I will refer to as the TCF industry—by deeming contract outworkers to be employees. It will provide a mechanism to enable TCF outworkers to recover unpaid amounts including those from contractors along the supply chain. It will facilitate a TCF outwork code. Not surprisingly, this bill will give additional powers to unions by extending specific rights of entry rules. Once again the Labor-Greens government have forced their way into another section of the community's homes. This creeping Orwellian government culture is consuming Australians.

Like other manufacturing industries the TCF industry has undergone transformation and structural adjustment. This is a consequence of tariff and industry assistance reforms beginning in the 1970s. With the Australian dollar currently so high in the TCF industry, whose export is now worth $1.7 billion a year, they need flexibility now more than ever. These businesses include new start-ups. As has often been the case in this industry, there are a lot of cottage start-ups coming through all the time—lots of imagination, lots of endeavour and lots of entrepreneurship. This kind of legislation that we see here in this bill will discourage the very entrepreneurship that I talk about and the risk-taking that is necessary for the industry to survive in this country.

Like many of Labor's policy forays, there has been limited consultation on this bill with those who are actually directly involved. This bill is another piece of legislation Labor are rushing through the parliament in order to satisfy their union cronies in their haste to gain more power in the Australian workplace in case this government collapses. There is a growing dominance by Labor of rushing legislation through this parliament, as we will see in just 14 minutes when they again guillotine another piece of legislation which has not been properly scrutinised.