Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I table statements of reasons relating to the Fair Entitlements Guarantee Bill 2012 and the Fair Work Amendment (Transfer of Business) Bill 2012 and seek leave to have the statements incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statemen t s read as follows—

STATEMENT OF REASONS FOR INTRODUCTION AND PASSAGE IN THE 2012 SPRING SITTINGS

FAIR ENTITLEMENTS GUARANTEE BILL

Purpose of the Bill

The bill creates a statutory scheme to replace the existing General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS). GEERS is an administrative scheme that is governed by Operation Arrangements.

Reasons for Urgency

The bill requires passage in the 2012 Spring sittings as a public commitment has been made to have the Fair Entitlements Guarantee operational by the end of 2012.

STATEMENT OF REASONS FOR INTRODUCTION AND PASSAGE IN THE 2012 SPRING SITTINGS

FAIR WORK AMENDMENT (TRANSFER OF BUSINESS) BILL

Purpose of the Bill

The bill amends the transfer of business provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 to protect the entitlements of state public sector employees in circumstances where a state government outsources functions or sells assets to a private sector employer who subsequently employs these employees.

Reasons for Urgency

In light of numerous state government announcements about public sector job cuts, there is potential in the near future for state outsourcing arrangements or asset sales to put at risk the terms and conditions of retrenched employees who are subsequently engaged by private sector employers in the national system to perform the same work. In this context, the Queensland Government recently legislated to override employment security provisions and limitations on the use of contractors in Queensland public sector agreements, which paves the way for outsourcing of public sector functions.

I move:

That the provisions of paragraphs (5) to (8) of standing order 111 not apply to the following bills, allowing them to be considered during this period of sittings:

Clean Energy Amendment (International Emissions Trading and Other Measures) Bill 2012

Clean Energy (Charges—Excise) Amendment Bill 2012

Clean Energy (Charges—Customs) Amendment Bill 2012

Excise Tariff Amendment (Per-tonne Carbon Price Equivalent) Bill 2012

Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment (Per-tonne Carbon Price Equivalent) Bill 2012

Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment (Per-tonne Carbon Price Equivalent) Bill 2012

Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge—Auctions) Amendment Bill 2012

Fair Entitlements Guarantee Bill 2012

Fair Work Amendment (Transfer of Business) Bill 2012.

This is the second of three exemption motions that will be dealt with by the Senate today. This motion exempts three significant packages of bills requiring passage before the parliament rises at the end of the spring sittings. I appreciate that this is a relatively high number of bills in total that the government is seeking to exempt from the cut-off motion.

In part, the late introduction of bills has been due to overriding legislative priorities earlier in the sittings which have delayed introduction and consideration of other legislation. At short notice, the parliament has dealt with immigration determinations and a bill to enable the detailed assessment of commercial fishing activities. Both chambers have had debate on same-sex marriage. These important debates have disrupted time and resources that might have otherwise been allocated to some of the legislation that we are now considering in exemption motions.

The clean energy package needs to be dealt with this year. The Australian government accepts the expert advice of scientists that greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to a climate change and that such change presents an unacceptable risk to the environment and to the economy. This government has put a price on carbon, establishing a market to help our nation transition to a clean energy future.

The bills due to come before this chamber further help the establishment of a deep and liquid carbon market for Australian firms to trade in. Primarily, these bills concern the legislative changes required to facilitate linking to the European ETS, giving Australian businesses access to the European carbon permits. Providing certainty to access to both European and Kyoto units is important. The passage of these bills will assist with this end and allow for effective implementation of linking as soon as possible. It also helps to provide long-term certainty regarding the operation of the carbon pricing mechanism.

The world is acting and business want a carbon price, and this government is listening by implementing a carbon trading scheme, which the passage of these bills will assist. Australia is not going it alone. We are not acting first. Nor is it true that none of our trading partners are acting. It is time those opposite accepted the evidence. The exemption of this package should be supported by this chamber.

Further, the Fair Work Amendment (Transfer Of Business) Bill will provide important protections for the entitlements of certain state public sector employees moving into the national workplace relations system through the transfer of business. Given recent announcements by Queensland and New South Wales state governments to cut their workforces, it is important that these protections are in place as soon as possible. The Fair Entitlements Guarantee Bill will legislate the existing General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme and provide stronger protections for Australian workers who are adversely affected when their employer goes into liquidation through no fault of their own.

It is important that all three packages of bills in the motion are enacted into law this year and I recommend this exemption motion to the chamber.