Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

WATT (—) (): As I've said, Senator Cash, if an employer has a single-interest bargain that is still running and hasn't reached its nominal expiry date, then they can't be roped in. And, when it comes time to bargain again, where an employer can demonstrate, or is likely to have a history of, effective bargaining, then that's what these provisions would apply to. But, again, I feel very repetitive in saying that, just as the existing legislation does not give metrics as to what amounts to 'better off overall', because it respects the fact that the Fair Work Commission has some right to use its discretion to work out what 'better off overall' means, similarly, what we're doing here is leaving it to the commission to determine whether, in the circumstances of a particular agreement, looked at globally, there is more than a marginal improvement, and, as I say, that has to be more than simply 'exceed the better off overall test'.