Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

I seek to debate the motion before the chair, before the question is put, and say that the Senate should insist on its amendments to this bill. This bill requires the transparency that has been put forward by the Senate in this legislation, such as the quarterly reports and the protection for workers that this place has seen as valid and important to be in the JobMaker legislation. It's all very well for the government to try to slate blame on this place for, indeed, wanting to put reasonable legislative amendments in place, but it is on the government's head if this legislation doesn't proceed today because it has not seen fit to agree to these extremely reasonable amendments.

These amendments simply put forward the idea and put into the new rules that there needs to be transparency so that we can see properly that the JobMaker hiring credit scheme is working and that we can also ensure that workers aren't worse off under this legislation. It is critical that the Senate stand up for itself and say to the government, 'What we've put forward is absolutely and entirely reasonable.' The government has the opportunity to get on with this legislation, because in the Labor Party we have, unlike the crossbench, expressed our support for this legislation.

But what the Senate has resolved is that the legislation, if it were to proceed—and this we have in common, irrespective of whether there are senators here who don't want to see the legislation proceed at all—needs to be amended in this transparent way. So it is entirely up to the government to say, 'Look, what the Senate has asked for is entirely reasonable; it's not difficult to do.' In fact, the government hasn't even finished drafting rules for this legislation—the delegated legislation inside it. The fact that the Senate expresses some opinion about what should be in those rules is not a difficult thing. It is an entirely reasonable thing. The drafting of the rules can be done in a way that is entirely consistent with what the Senate has asked for.