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

Unfortunately, I have been provoked to traverse some territory I was hoping not to occupy Senate time with, but I think the responses of my colleagues and others to at least three references of 'stacking and packing' warrant some consideration. Those listening and other senators need to understand that Senator Abetz's view about what constitutes a union official is a particularly interesting one. Anyone who has ever, at any stage of their professional career, been associated with a trade union would fit his category. So just imagine, across the Australian workforce, people across a broad range of professions and experience—for instance, mine, professional social work. Because I was involved with a union—because I joined a union at the age of about 16—I would fit his category. It is just ludicrous. He counts, for instance, Justice Ross as one of these 'stacks'. He may not particularly like that particular appointment, but it is not really a fair characterisation of the balance and composition of Fair Work Australia, and I do not think that Senator Abetz does the tribunal justice with this approach.

In relation to the Law Council's submission, we need to remind the chamber that what the government is doing is re-establishing an arrangement of seniority that had been in place for many years. The Law Council is concerned about relative positions of some of the existing office holders. Unfortunately, change involves affecting relative positions of existing office holders. That is a necessary consequence of change.

The other three considered views that Senator Abetz highlights relate, if I have got this correct, to at least one and perhaps three leaked emails, possibly taken out of context. I am not sure about how those deputy presidents feel about the opposition bandying around leaked emails, or what their motives may or may not have been in commenting, or how that material came into the public realm. It may have been reported by the Australian Financial Review, but I remind senators and those listening that that is the context of the reporting of those views, not necessarily in their full context. These were private communications between them and the President of Fair Work Australia and certainly cannot be taken as representative of the view of Fair Work Australia commissioners and deputy presidents.

What we do know, as a matter of fact, is that the President of Fair Work Australia sought to have the government re-establish seniority arrangements that had previously been in place to assist him in the administration and management of an agency which we all know has reviewed its internal processes so that it can deal with some of the issues and problems associated, as Senator Abetz highlighted, with resourcing and work in certain areas.

This is what the government is doing to try to assist Fair Work Australia overcome some of the difficulties that have arisen in recent times.