David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate that I intend to support Labor's amendments. This bill allows the government to prevent private sector operators at airports and ports from employing former criminals. That is, preventing people who have served their time and served their sentences from working at an airport or shipping port, even when the government does not consider their employment to be a threat to aviation or maritime transport. That is a blanket ban that is imposed in the hope that some future crime may be prevented. It is lazy legislating and it encourages poor policing.

We should not be quick to adopt job killing legislation, and that is what this is. The criminals who have served their time and completed their sentences have a hell of a time finding a job. If they do not find a job, they are on welfare; they are paid for by other people. The jobs that they might be involved in are not necessarily all that skilled. They might be unloading luggage, fuelling aircraft, sweeping the floor or cleaning toilets. The purported purpose of this legislation originally was a terrorist objective. It has gone way beyond that. It is a job killing bill and for that reason I do not support it.