Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'll be very brief. I don't say what I'm about to with any expectation that it will change anybody's mind, particularly the minds of Pauline Hanson's One Nation senators. I say it so that they cannot say they didn't know what they were doing.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly said that under this legislation an employer can't sack someone in order to receive the hiring credit. As the legislation was introduced by the government, that is false. That is an incorrect statement. But the fact is that the amendments that are currently being considered by the Senate actually do ensure that an employer cannot sack someone or reduce their hours in order to receive the hiring credit. Those are the facts. The Prime Minister's claims that he repeatedly made in the other place today are false. They are an inaccurate interpretation of the legislation as it stood when it was introduced. It is only this amendment that would actually ensure that an employer could not fire someone or reduce their hours in order to hire other people to receive the credit. Those are the facts. I put them on the record simply so that the One Nation senators cannot later claim that they did not understand what they are doing here today.