Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Yesterday, Minister Burke, while blocking the four closing loopholes bills that the Senate passed last week, accused the Senate, along with members in the other place, of playing 'delaying games'. Meanwhile, he has put the bills to the bottom of the business paper, giving them the lowest priority. The minister, instead of putting his big-boy pants on and taking ownership of these bills, has chosen to block the passage of bills that would give federal first responders easier access to PTSD diagnoses, stop discrimination in the workplace of victims of family and domestic violence, bring silica into line with asbestos and enable redundancy payments for workers of large businesses that are facing insolvency. Minister, why won't this government recognise that these bills were your bills, that they were good bills and that they had great capacity to help some of the most vulnerable Australians that we have out there?