Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk directly to the many hundreds of thousands of self-employed tradies right across Australia, particularly in my home state of Western Australia. When I say 'many hundreds of thousands', I mean just that. There are 264,000 self-employed tradies in the building industry alone. That doesn't take into account the mining industry, agriculture and all those other parts of the economy where self-employed tradies are so important.

I rise because I am deeply concerned about what the loose—and, I suspect, deliberately loose—drafting in the Labor Party's industrial relations bill that's before this chamber at the moment. It's been sent off to the Senate inquiry. I congratulate crossbenchers who supported us in ensuring that the inquiry was of a reasonable length. Too often in this place we've seen the crossbench siding with the Labor government to ensure that scrutiny is minimised, to ensure rushed and hurried inquiries. But even the initial examination of this IR legislation by the crossbenchers, the Liberal Party and the National Party shows that it needs deep scrutiny, because there are so many concerns raised in this bill. I'm talking directly to the tradies out there, because that is one of the areas where we see deliberate or unintended mass overreach from the government.

They stated their intention last year to tackle the issue of uncertain work via platforms—the so-called 'gig economy'—in this bill, but the language in the bill is so broad, using terms like 'employee-like' or a 'regulated worker'. I won't go into the Orwellian nature of those terms, but the fact is they are extraordinarily general to the point where, depending on interpretation, it is entirely possible that people who currently consider themselves to be their own business, people who consider themselves to be self-employed, will be clawed in under the term 'employee-like' or will be directly bought in as a regulated worker. We see this with the trucking industry. The IR legislation contains particular provisions aimed at independent truckies and making sure they are caught directly under this legislation, but it's not going to be just independent truckies who are caught.

To the self-employed Australians out there: are you an electrician, a welder, a chippie or a bricklayer? Are you a roofer, a glazier or a plumber? Are you a driver of specialised heavy equipment? Are you a tiler? There are so many other professions out there that operate under independent contract models where the individual is their own business or a small team are their own business. They are self-employed and they do that for a reason. They don't want to get dragged into enterprise agreements. People choose to be independent for a reason. They don't want to be dragged into a union. They choose to be independent for a reason. They don't want to be treated as an employee-like worker. They choose to be independent. They choose to be self-employed. The fact is that this legislation has been worded in such a way as to put every one of those professions, those jobs, on notice—every one of those independent tradies out there who want to choose who they work for, who want to choose the hours they work, who want to choose where they work, who want to choose how much they get paid. They are all at risk under this legislation.

What does 'employee-like' actually mean? If you're an independent contractor. If you're an electrician or a chippie or a brickie or a welder or an independent truckie or a roofer or a glazier or a plumber and you happen to do the vast majority of your work with one contracting business, do you start to look like an employee? If you read how the Fair Work Commission interprets 'employee-like', you see that, yes, maybe you do. Maybe you can be dragged into an enterprise amendment against your will when you consider yourself to be an independent business. You consider yourself to be a subbie. You choose who you work with. You choose where you work. You choose how much you get paid. You negotiate directly with those businesses in the supply chain above you as to what you do, when you do it and how you do it.

I know many tradies, and they value that independence. The government will say, 'Oh, no; this is just targeting digital platforms. This is just targeting the gig economy,' but the fact is they've drafted the legislation in such a way that that is not clear. We've seen peak industry groups point out that it is not clear whether those independent tradies will get dragged into enterprise agreements, will get dragged into involvement with the union movement, will get dragged into being considered something that they do not consider themselves.

They consider themselves to be their own entities. They consider themselves to be their own businesses, subbies, contractors, electricians, welders, chippies, bricklayers, independent truckies, roofers, glaziers, plumbers, heavy equipment drivers, tilers—it goes on and on. So many vital parts of our economy are a part of this independent contracting sector. It deserves to be celebrated and to be highlighted in this place, and it certainly doesn't deserve, whether by deliberate action or by oversight, to be dragged into heavy-handed, centralised industrial relations changes, which are in the main aimed at reinstituting the unions at the heart of our IR system, when the private-sector workers of Australia have made it very clear they have no interest in being part of a union.

Union membership is down to something like eight per cent and falling in the private sector. Those independent tradies have demonstrated that they want that independence. They wanted to choose who they work for, when they work and how much they get paid. In the course of this inquiry, we will be examining this issue and so many other issues in great detail, because this legislation is massive overreach. The small businesses of Australia in particular will need to look at this legislation extraordinarily carefully. We will do everything we can on this side of the chamber to make sure the scrutiny is full and fair, and that the reality on the ground of the risks of this legislation to the independent tradies sector is exposed.