Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

To say that I am disappointed or incensed by what this government is doing here would be a gross understatement. I'm the Deputy Chair of the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee. I'm on that committee with Senator Brockman, who's in the chamber with me. We've been going through a very exhaustive process looking at arguably the most complicated legislation that has hit the parliament this term, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023. To be ramming it through in this way today, with but a minute's notice, demonstrates very clearly the disdain that this government has for this place, the Senate—and that means for you, the Australian people, because you've put us here to do a job particularly in the Senate, which is the house of review. We are not being given the opportunity to even report before considering, as I said, some of the most dramatic changes by legislation. It is an absolute disgrace!

We have received 176 submissions to this inquiry. What are you, the government, saying to all those submitters? You're saying that you don't give a stuff, that you don't care, that you won't take their views into consideration. It doesn't matter because the only view that matters is the view of the trade unions; that's what you're implementing here. It is an absolute outrage! If you think I'm upset about it, guess what: you ain't seen anything yet. Wait until we finally put our report in. It's disgusting what you've done.

I want to quote one of the submitters—and I want to give some time to Senator Brockman; he'll only have a couple of minutes because we will cut off at midday. This person withheld their name. They're a small-business operator, and they're probably worried about the impact that coming out publicly might have. They said about this bill:

It is proposing a policy to reverse union court defeats & effectively saying to the economy that "unless you employ someone part time or full time, all methods of engagement are invalid or unwanted" …

…   …   …

I fear for the outcome of Australia if this bill is passed.

By rushing this bill through today, you, the government, are saying to submitter No. 170 and all the others that put in a submission that you do not consider their concerns seriously.

One of the measures that have been brought in here through the splitting of the bill is penalties that go even to imprisonment for wage theft and other things that break this law. So the parliament today are going to decide to put people into jail, but we're not actually going to scrutinise whether there are proper processes in place to make sure it's a legitimate and valid consideration. That's what we're doing here today. It is unbelievable.

The government talks a big game on transparency. Right before the election—we all remember it—time and time again that was their slogan. It was the basis on which they said, 'Australians, will you elect us to lead this country.' Yet here they are demonstrating, yet again, the opposite. Should we be surprised? Of course not, because it is the pattern of this government. They are reverting to form.

I'll finish with this very good point that the MCA, the Minerals Council of Australia, made in their media release today:

The Albanese government has never been honest on its true agenda on 'same job, same pay'.

They talk about transparency and honesty, yet they've never been honest, the MCA say.

Its election policy was to deal with what it said were the "limited circumstances" in which 'labour hire' is misused.

But in this legislation here we don't even have a definition of what labour hire is. We don't have a definition of it. We know what is really intended by this legislation. The MCA said it beautifully when they said this legislation:

… does nothing of the sort. It has nothing to do with labour hire and is not about 'closing loopholes'.

Instead, it allows unions to impose 'same job, same pay' not just on labour hire but on every business that employs its own staff and contracts to another business.

That's what this is about. This is about giving to the unions unfettered power in the workplace. It is going to destroy business. What we're doing here today is an absolute travesty.