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

Listening to the minister's response about wanting to get wages moving—everyone wants that. The fact is that this could have also been dealt with under the state and federal awards. You could actually move the wages there if you really wanted to.

What Senator David Pocock has said really concerns me because, in a small crossbench meeting that he had with my adviser, with Malcolm Roberts and with some others on the crossbench, he admitted that this bill was being rushed through. He has said that publicly—that there hadn't been enough time for consultation to address it and that, to pull out these things to do with the ABCC and multi-enterprise bargaining, further consultation was to happen. It's quite interesting what he says. He talked about how the motion to extend the committee hearing date last week wasn't passed. It wasn't going to get passed in this chamber; it was blocked by Labor, and it was blocked by the Greens. You didn't want to extend the consultation time for the committee to actually hear more about the IR bill. So Senator Pocock's comments are very interesting. He said, after the motion was defeated and after it was clear the bill would be voted on this week, that he did the research. But we're only talking about last week to this week that he did the research. These are his words, not mine. Then he said:

I knuckled down and got to work and tried to get across this issue as best I could to be able to make a decision and vote on behalf of the people of the ACT …

It's not just the ACT, but he admits that he wasn't really across it.

When the ABCC came up in this chamber, we actually spent three months plus on it. We spoke to unions, we spoke to the government, we spoke to advisers, we spoke to businesses—everyone. It took us that long just to get our heads across the ABCC and the impact it has on the construction industry. You can't tell me that a rookie senator in this place, who's dealing with all the other legislation, has got his head around and knows what's happening in this industry. This has been pushed by Labor. I don't know what deals you've done with him, but there's no way in the wide world that he can actually be across this and know exactly what's going on. Not only that; you have Labor, and you have the Liberal-National coalition, but the fact is that we on the crossbench are not beholden to any of the political parties. We actually do represent the over 33 per cent of Australians who voted for us in this last election. To push this legislation through is disgusting; you have not really given big business the chance.

I went to the hearing last week, and I asked some questions. I asked the Fair Work Commissioner, 'Have you ever run a business? Have you ever employed anyone?' They looked at me, stupid. Then they had to say, 'No, I've only been a public servant.' You have really only listened to them. I asked a question about the Public Service. I said, 'Do you realise that right across your own board and The Public Service you don't have enterprise bargaining, because if you work under the E4 or E5, for instance, in one government department, whether it be Defence or another government department, people are paid different wages. That's something I would like the minister to answer: does the bill deal with the Public Service? You're dealing with the private sector. You're telling the private sector what they should be doing. What have you got in the bill to cover the Public Service?