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

Union delegate rights. You've got to be kidding me! So at least be upfront in relation to why you want to push this bill through the Senate this year.

They're your own start dates. And what starts on 1 January? The rights of unions to go into workplaces around this country.

But let's have a look at the four pieces of legislation that we're being asked to discuss this morning. They are, word for word, taken from the government's own legislation. So, effectively what Senator Lambie and Senator Pocock are doing is giving the government the opportunity to vote on their own legislation this morning and be constructive. The coalition is going to be constructive. The crossbenchers are going to be constructive. I don't know what the Australian Greens are going to do, but they may well be constructive, too, to enable these important parts of legislation—important parts that business groups across Australia also agree should be split from this bill—to be put through the Senate. Then we can continue our role as a Senate and properly scrutinise the more complex and controversial parts of the legislation.

So let's look this morning at what the crossbenchers are looking at doing. They are looking to provide the asbestos agency with the remit in relation to silica diseases. Well, that is work that was started under the former coalition government. A report has just been released by Safe Work Australia. I would have thought that, given the recommendations from Safe Work Australia, this is something where the government would say: 'Yes. It is appropriate. It is not controversial. It can be progressed today through the Australian Senate.'

And they're going to be using, as a political weapon, discrimination against people who are suffering family or domestic violence. Now, you tell me: if businesses across Australia are saying that they are comfortable with the change that is being proposed—and we're comfortable with the change, and the crossbench are comfortable—why would you not pursue that again today through the Australian Senate? And what about the redundancy payments for Australian workers? That's something Minister Burke could happily progress through today. So, when a larger business becomes a small business—due to, say, insolvency—those workers will still be entitled to a redundancy payment. I thought that was getting workers paid, but, conveniently, Minister Watt and Mr Burke don't agree with that.

But of course something that I personally looked at when last in opposition—and I worked with former senator Gavin Marshall on this—was reversing the presumption in relation to first responders who get posttraumatic stress syndrome. Labor can be as political as they like, but guess what? We're going to be constructive, and I support the suspension of standing orders.