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

No, thank you. Obviously, as I said, these are very genuine questions. This is a new section. There's a section in the act that says, currently, 'Approval of enterprise agreements' by the Fair Work Commission. Section 186, 'When the Fair Work Commission must approve an enterprise agreement—general requirement', sets out the basic rule. It then says currently under186(2):

The FWC must be satisfied that:

…   …   …

(b) if the agreement is a multi-enterprise agreement:

(i) the agreement has been genuinely agreed to by each employer covered by the agreement; and

(ii) no person coerced, or threatened to coerce, any of the employers to make the agreement; and

The point of the line of questioning is that, if I look at the amendment, the amendment says we're now swooping in above that and what we're now saying is that:

if the agreement is a multi-enterprise agreement: no person coerced, or threatened to coerce, any of the employers to make the agreement …

The bit I'm struggling with then is, you're now saying:

Insert:

(2AA) In applying paragraph 186(2)(b), the FWC must disregard anything done, and the effect of anything done, by a person other than one of the employers who bargained for the agreement …

Again, what, in terms of the definition of coercion in section 186, does it not include taking industrial action or threatening to take industrial action?