Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much for the call. I also acknowledge Senator Xenophon's support for Labor's small business access to justice policy and    I thank him for his support last week. We appreciate the fact that these amendments of Senator Xenophon's have been split which allowed us to support this section of his amendments whilst noting that we strongly oppose this legislation as it stands. We voted that way at the second reading stage.

We are opposed to the effects test; however, we do support the lift of Labor policy into Senator Xenophon's amendment. I agree with him that, in terms of drafting that bill and formulating our policy prior to the last election, it was really about providing real access to justice for small and medium businesses. Anyone who spends any time with small business will hear stories of reluctance to pursue anticompetitive conduct based on the uncertainty of the costs associated with pursuing that and the acknowledgement that large corporations—big business—have very deep pockets. In terms of protecting their markets, they are prepared to dig deep into those pockets to ensure that small business doesn't pursue practical access to justice. That is exactly what these amendments sought to address in last week's bill and we certainly support the amendment here tonight.

In terms of some of the comments Senator Cormann just made in criticising this, there is a public interest threshold that would be assessed against the no adverse costs order amendments as part of our legislation. It's not predetermining every case. It is looking at cases where the court has decided that there is a public interest question at stake. But, having said that, we will be voting against this bill for the reasons I have already outlined at the second reading stage. However, we are happy to support Senator Xenophon's amendment.