Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

The hundreds of thousands of small businesses—and they are often forgotten about the context of the building industry—need a system that is fair and that enables them to participate, and this is currently not the case. This was highlighted by the recent Federal Circuit Court decision in which a head contractor, J Hutchinson, was fined for discrimination of the worst category. What happened was Hutchison cancelled the engagement of a tiling subcontractor because the firm did not have an enterprise agreement with the union. What our new building code will do though is protect subcontractors and small businesses from these types of practices by head contractors.