Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I think you might find that some of the correspondence in fact arrived at various state governments a few days after the release. As a result it will be very interesting to see how this communication was made to the state governments. Mr Temporary Chairman, we still do not have any genuine explanation as to why the High Court definition is a failure. We still do not have any real rationale for why this legislation has been rushed and why there has now been the need for amendments in this place with an amended explanatory memorandum. We still have not been told why Queensland Labor redundancies were okay and not worthy of legislation but LNP redundancies somehow were, which, of course, is putting many workers at risk of gaining re-employment and, of course, we have not had a response—a genuine response—as to whether the government can guarantee that no worker will be worse off as a result of this bill. So they were the general issues that we sought to canvass in this part of the committee process and, unless there are any other general questions, I suggest we move on to the amendments, noting that the government, in its rush to get this legislation through—forcing it through the other place—are now in the humiliating position of having to move four tranches of their own amendments.