Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I have been responding to what Senator Bilyk said and talking about all the things that it does not do. It does not bring back Work Choices. It does not go after people who do the right thing. It goes after those who do the wrong thing.

The bill establishes an independent watchdog, the Registered Organisations Commission, to monitor and regulate registered organisations, with enhanced investigative and information-gathering powers. It amends the requirements for officers' disclosure of material personal interests—and related voting and decision-making rights—and changes the grounds for disqualification and ineligibility for office. It strengthens existing financial accounting, disclosure and transparency obligations under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act by putting certain rule obligations on the face of that act and making them enforceable as civil remedy provisions. It increases civil penalties and introduces criminal offences for serious breaches of officers' duties, as well as introducing new offences in relation to the conduct of investigations under the registered organisations act.

That is what the bill does. It does not do anything that Senator Bilyk claimed in her speech. I am not sure if she has read the legislation—