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

I am pursuing the issue that had been raised by Senator Lambie. Senator Lambie's point—and you have articulated this, I believe in your answer—is that there are no exemptions as such. No-one is exempt. If an issue is raised, despite the fact that you are compensated for additional hours, you can still bring a claim, and the Fair Work Commission itself is the determiner of what is reasonable and what is not. It is a little bit like national security and the Defence Force. There's actually no carve-out for national security and the Defence Force. I personally would have thought that the government would have looked at this and perhaps proposed an amendment so that, in relation to national security and defence, there is a carve-out, but there is not.

The point Senator Lambie is making, yet again, is that there are no exemptions here; there are merely factors that the Fair Work Commission may take into account when a claim is made. As Senator Lambie knows, the Fair Work Commission may well say, 'Guess what: it's not adequate, you're not compensated, and you now have a right to disconnect.'

I will pursue something that has been raised particularly by businesses that work across time zones. It's been raised, in particular, by businesses in my home state of Western Australia. The West Australian newspaper, on behalf of businesses in WA, has been pursuing this issue. At the best of times, people in WA and people in the east know it is difficult to do business in Western Australia when you have a three-hour time difference. I don't think it is unusual for me to say that there are many in Western Australia who start receiving calls as early as 2.30 to 3 am during daylight savings—it's as simple as that—because it is already 5.30 to 6 am in the eastern states. The eastern states are already open for business, when in Western Australia technically people are still in bed.

The issue that the business community have been raising is that, the way this is drafted and the fact that there are no exemptions—there are only guidelines that the Fair Work Commission itself is able to pass comment on and determine on—this will cause difficulties for employers with staff working in different time zones. Businesses then say that this could be devastating to businesses across Australia and cause chaos for Western Australian businesses, particularly if employees could only have communication with east coast colleagues in the narrow window between east coast business hours and those in the west. Imagine if employees in Sydney or Melbourne were banned from emailing an employee in Perth until midday to align with WA time or if a Perth manager would be breaching the law in providing an update to his or her east coast colleagues after 2 pm—or even, let's face it, 5.30 pm WA time is actually 8.30 pm eastern states time.

So the question that has been raised is: for example, a company operates across Australia. Staff are actually very good about respecting colleagues in Western Australia, knowing when it's best to contact each of them. But what will actually happen if mistakes are made, or, alternatively, what will actually happen if there is going to be an impact on the business? These are very genuine questions that have been raised by, as I said, Western Australians in particular. How is this going to work, and what are the guarantees the government has in place that this won't impact the Western Australian business community and, more broadly, the economy?