Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Yet again, with every word you have just said it's just got a whole lot worse for the employers in Australia, because they had questions about geographical location, the regulatory regime and the nature of the enterprise, and the terms and conditions of employment. You have now actually stated for the record that there are a whole lot of other common interests that may or may not be taken into consideration which the Fair Work Commission themselves may or may not dream up that employers in Australia are not aware of. We are now moving, Senator Watt, into very dangerous territory.

It's not a small shop. It is someone with, when you move your amendment and it gets up, 21 employees or more. We are in the multi-employer single interest test. We're not in supported bargaining at this moment, so it is 21 or more. For the record, are you saying that you are formally ruling out whether a small shop of 21 or more—so we're right in—will not be compelled to bargain with a Woolworths-type store if they have the same geographical location or regulatory regime or nature of the enterprise. Are you ruling that in or out, because if you are ruling it in, we have a whole lot of other questions. If you are ruling it out, let's do it for the record now, and then we're going to work through the size of business that you are ruling out that will not be compelled to bargain with another business.