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

I thank Senator Smith for the question. Enterprise bargaining in the Australian Public Service is progressing at an agency level, as required by the Australian government public sector workplace bargaining policy. So far, 65 agencies, covering about 76 per cent of the workforce, have commenced enterprise bargaining.

In relation to misleading claims, I can regrettably inform Senator Smith and the Senate that the Community and Public Sector Union has been falsely claiming that the government is stripping public servants' rights and conditions. This is incorrect. The government's bargaining policy simply aims for less complex enterprise agreements that do not repeat rights, conditions and responsibilities already provided for in legislation or elsewhere. Entitlements conferred by law, such as in the Fair Work Act or workplace health and safety legislation, apply to employees regardless of whether they are uselessly repeated in an enterprise agreement.

For example, the CPSU claims that the government wants to cut public servants' super when the contribution rate is actually set by the trustee, a legislative instrument subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Duplicative content recently inserted into enterprise agreements pretending to fix a certain superannuation contribution rate cannot legally constrain the rate contained in Public Service superannuation law, yet the CPSU continues to deliberately misrepresent the reality and ignore the government's stated position that the rate will not change. This is just scaremongering by the CPSU and, what is more, public servants know it.