Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If anyone had any doubt whatsoever about the true nature of the Labor government, I think this unexpected, unannounced and secret 700-plus-page bill is absolute evidence. In fact, why bother having Labor members in this chamber? Why don't you just put your trade union reps in these seats? It would be more honest than you are currently. This was not included in the government's 2022 election policies. Neither was it foreshadowed in any of the public consultation papers released in April of this year. No matter what they say, they did not go to the election and tell the Australian people that this was their true agenda.

On this side of the chamber, we absolutely knew what you were all about. A year-and-a-half in, you've had to sneak this in under the cover of darkness. You've got Senator Sterle here saying, 'Oh, it's just about a few truck drivers.' I was going to say something rude, but I won't. Like hell it is just about a few people in a couple of industries. This is about every workplace in this country. Employees will undoubtedly be worse off, but it is small businesses who are already suffering. There are five million small businesses in this country, 43 per cent of whom are now not profitable, given the stresses and strains your government have put on them with cost-of-living and the cost-of-doing-business pressures for small businesses. No-one in this country should are residual doubts.

Reading the response from the Minerals Council—the minerals industry is an incredibly important industry not only to my home state of Western Australia but also to the economic viability of our nation. Let's see what the Minerals Council has said about this. Tanya Constable said:

The Albanese Government's latest industrial relations legislation changes are some of the most extreme, interventionist workplace changes that have ever been proposed in Australia.

The changes will inflict immense harm to the economy, the weight of which will fall on the shoulders of the most vulnerable Australians who will pay more for groceries, housing, and energy.

Guess what? Your own minister, when announcing this yesterday, confirmed that the cost of living will go up even further for every Australian who at the moment can least afford it.

Let's see what the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia has had to say about this extreme legislation. The council's chair, Matthew Addison, said this:

The issues of confusion and complexity remain, combined with an increased requirement of every business, small or large, to dedicate—

even more—

resources, time and money towards trying to understand—

700 or 800 pages of complex legislation in four separate schedules. He continued:

At a time when small businesses are managing increased costs of supply, of rent, of power, of wages …

The last thing any small business in this country needs is these additional changes. We do not, in this country, need any of these.

I'd like to say to the people of Western Australia that there are 10 good reasons why this is such a bad bill. It is impossibly complex. It has far too much uncertainty. It adds additional costs to businesses, including our five million small businesses. It makes Australians pay more in a cost-of-living crisis, which the minister confirmed yesterday. Shame on you for supporting that at the moment! It does absolutely nothing to increase productivity. When the minister was asked today in question time, he couldn't point to a single provision that actually increased productivity. It does nothing to enhance competition. It risks jobs—probably hundreds of thousands of jobs, particularly in small business. The only ones to benefit are Labor's union paymasters. As I said, the jig is up.