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

Unsurprisingly, we're now into the last five minutes of scrutinising—or, should I say, the lack of scrutiny—in relation to, as I said, one of the most complex and confusing bills to ever come before this parliament. The bad news for all of those employers out there is that this bill directly impacts you.

Last night Senator Paul Scarr gave an incredibly articulate and real example of what small businesses are now going to be going through when they want to bring on a casual employee. There is step after step after step. Senator Scarr said you will now need to go through 25 steps, and then you better pray to God that you actually got it right. Because, in the event that you have incorrectly engaged this person, despite your best efforts as a small business person to pick up a copy of the Fair Work Act—because I know that you do that every night when you go home, because you have so much time—and read it and work out what it means, there will be a penalty to pay.

I think what is most disappointing about this legislation today, though, is that, despite what the minister says, the government hasn't listened to business. You just have to look at the front pages across Australia today. These are not businesses saying, 'We don't want to comply with the laws.' These are businesses that are saying, 'These laws that you are putting in place are going to have a detrimental effect on us.' They don't say that selfishly. If you have a detrimental effect on business, as they have said, certain things flow from that. In the first instance—and you have to see what the rideshare companies are saying, and even Minister Burke admitted this—prices will go up for consumers as a result of this legislation. Labor's legislation is estimated to see prices for food delivery or rideshare services increase by up to 35 per cent. That means that, in a cost-of-living crisis, Labor don't care that their legislation will see the Australian consumer pay more for a service that they need.

But, more than that, businesses—and small businesses in particular—have been clear that they can only take on board so many additional costs. The only thing that they can then do when they are at breaking point is pass those costs on to the consumer. That is what businesses in Australia are saying. Alternatively, there is, of course, another choice: if you're floundering in red tape, you don't understand the complexity, and you are completely confused by what this legislation and tranche 2 and tranche 1 are doing to you, you no longer open your doors. That's not the coalition saying that. The minister likes to keep saying that this is the coalition running a scare campaign. We're out there every day talking to businesses, and, in particular, small businesses. You only have to read the newspapers today or yesterday to see that it is the businesses of Australia—as I said, those people who get up every morning and employ Australians—saying to this government: 'Please, just pause. We cannot cope with any additional red tape. We cannot cope with any additional complexity. And, more than that, we cannot cope with the additional confusion that this is going to create for us.'

But Labor doesn't care, and we accept and know why. This was always about taking away from employers the right to run their businesses in consultation with their employees to work out what the best result for employers and employees actually is. This is all about centralising the employment system in Australia, and you can see that from all of the minister's answers: 'The Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Commission.' They're running your business; you'd better get to know them well.

Progress reported.