Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

We did canvass this issue a little bit earlier, but I appreciate you weren't in the chamber at the time. The government has published the draft rules. We are in accordance with our responsibilities under international labour conventions for consulting on the rules, given the employment impact of these types of measures. We're consulting in good faith.

The rules as they are published are intended to give effect to the program as the government announced it and they are there for senators to see and scrutinise, but they're not embedded in the legislation so that we can have that proper period of consultation with employee organisations, employer organisations and other stakeholder groups who have a vested interest in ensuring that the program works as it's intended to work without any other side effects or consequences. That is the rationale behind trying to move as quickly as we can post budget to legislate and give certainty to the program, but the rules are providing, as is often the case with grant type programs, the flexibility for us to be able to make sure that there aren't unintended consequences that come through the quick passage of legislation but instead the adaptability from those types of rules to be able to address issues in response to any stakeholder concerns.