Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

In serving the people of Queensland and Australia, I note that Senator Pratt is fixated on a problem, not the solution. Yesterday the government took the first step in recognising One Nation's legitimate concerns for employees and employers. It booted out the BOOT. Australians need and deserve genuine improvement to our broken industrial relations system. Firstly, casual workers are being abused and exploited. Secondly, the needs of small business have been ignored by everyone except One Nation. The new bill's definition of 'casual' is complex. It suggests that the employer's intention expressed at the time of commencement of employment is the only factor. It's not. The definition also refers to 'no firm advance commitment', yet many casuals have a firm advance commitment and many have a regular pattern of hours, because it suits both the worker and the business.

My second concern is with the proposed right to conversion. It burdens many small businesses and puts the casual loading at risk for workers who enjoy the benefit of a casual loading. The answer is to reduce red tape and complexity for small business and, likewise, to widen the window of opportunity for workers to apply for conversion.

My third and overriding concern is offsetting claims, section 545A. I do not support double dipping on entitlements, yet I will fight to protect workers legal and moral entitlements, just as I have done relentlessly in the Hunter Valley for 20 months. Recently the CFMMEU's mining division agreed that their union has ignored casuals for many years, and its national legal director, Mr Bukarica, had the courage and integrity to acknowledge the Hunter Valley division has caused and enabled exploitation of casual workers. Labor's Joel Fitzgibbon ignored abused casuals in the Hunter and hid their core problems. One Nation stands for the ignored workers that Labor ignores. We're ready to work together with the government and with all parties to improve this bill for employers and for employees.