Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition finds this motion extraordinary on a number of accounts. Not all states have opted to refer their industrial relations arrangements to the Commonwealth, and for some states there was only a partial referral. In Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia, public sector employees are not covered by the Fair Work Act because successive Labor governments did not refer powers to the Commonwealth in respect of public sector employees and local government employees. Clearly, if federal Labor were to support this motion, it would be casting a vote of no confidence in former state Labor governments of New South Wales and Queensland. The then Labor state governments made the decision not to refer powers for public sector employees in those states, and therefore the issues raised in this reference are matters for state governments. The coalition will not support this reference, which seeks to undermine the principles of federalism.