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

by leave—I move opposition amendments (1) and (2) together on sheet 7303:

(1) Clause 23, page 20 (line 8), after "that employment", insert "up to a maximum of 16 weeks' pay".

(2) Clause 23, page 20 (line 11), after "employer", insert "and the 16 weeks' maximum in subparagraph (i) has not been reached".

The coalition will be brief in relation to this amendment: the points were made during the second reading debate.

I would only make this one observation: Senator Urquhart's speech in the second reading debate was a devastating tour de force in destruction of Labor's own National Employment Standards, which were legislated in the Fair Work Act, which was authored by Ms Gillard herself.

The coalition, as I indicated, implemented the forerunner to this scheme. Labor has anxiously changed its name to remove any of the initiating features that came from the coalition; that is one aspect. Good luck to them with the name change. The aspect the coalition is concerned about is that the scheme should only cover redundancies in line with the wider community standard, which at present—and I want to stress this—is set out under the National Employment Standards of the Fair Work Act. Who are the authors of the National Employment Standards? Who are the authors of the Fair Work Act? None other than the Australian Labor Party and Ms Gillard herself. And where did they get those National Employment Standards from—the standards that they thought were so good, the standards that were legislated in relation to the issue of redundancy? A decision of the independent umpire, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.

So the coalition does not believe that this bill should set a new standard of four weeks per year for an unlimited period of time, as clearly it will set a new standard which will be very difficult to meet for many employers. It will undoubtedly be used to argue for more generous redundancy arrangements in enterprise agreements and modern awards. Can I also say that after 10 years of service there is a long-service leave entitlement that cuts in.

Parliamentary Secretary, is it the intention of the government to set this legislation up as a new high bar, as a new standard, for the purposes of negotiating enterprise agreements and modern award arrangements?