Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Setting Gender Equality Targets) Bill 2024. This bill amends the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 and introduces new requirements for designated relevant employers, those with 500 or more employees, to commit to achieve or, at a minimum, improve on and report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on measurable gender equality targets. These targets are proposed to fall under any of the six gender equality indicators. The bill requires large employers to select three gender equality targets and report on their progress to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency each year. In their third year of reporting, they must then show that they have achieved their targets or, at a minimum, have improved their targets before selecting a further three targets to achieve in the following three years.

This bill also amends the definition of 'relevant employer' to explicitly include subsidiaries of parent companies with 100 or more employees and clarifies that, in a corporate structure, a parent corporation is also considered to employ each of the employees of any of its subsidiaries. Where an employer has not met its selected gender equality targets or has not demonstrated improvements within the relevant period of three years, they are considered to have failed to comply with their obligations under the act. Under the Workplace Gender Equality Procurement Principles, relevant employers seeking to supply goods or services to the government at or above $80,000 must provide a certificate of compliance issued by the agency as part of that procurement process. Consequently, such employers would be unable to provide the compliance certificate.

This bill places quite significant and onerous financial implications on businesses. The legislation will affect over 1,650 of Australia's largest companies by potentially precluding them from supplying goods or services to the Commonwealth government at or above $80,000 in critical areas, including agriculture and forestry; forestry and fishing; construction; education and training; manufacturing; and mining. The provisions in this bill significantly undermine businesses and they risk the important procurement required for critical areas like national security. This bill introduces a new power for the minister to set targets and rules in relation to the selection of gender equality targets. The bill gives personal power to the minister to set the category of targets that can be selected and to select the number of targets that businesses are required to select. It's getting more and more convoluted. The menu of targets will be set out in an instrument to the act and will not be on the face of this legislation. This is, without a doubt, government overreach.

The minister has personal powers to set rules and targets of their own choosing with no scrutiny from the businesses that are impacted. This creates the possibility of an even more onerous compliance burden on businesses. The bill introduces substantial compliance requirements on Australian businesses, and the reporting requirements add further red tape to the operations of Australia's biggest corporations, driving down their productivity in an economy that is already struggling under the increasing compliance burdens of the Albanese government's radical industrial relations and energy policies that other senators in this place have spoken about. Adding compliance burdens to businesses will also inevitably be inflationary, adding to the Albanese government's already existing homegrown inflation crisis.

It's estimated that the bill will create further compliance issues for over 1,650 of Australia's businesses. Should the government want to go further, guess who we think is next in line after big business? It's pretty clear it's going to be small and medium enterprises—millions and millions of them—around the country, who are already struggling with significant red tape and compliance burdens under this Albanese Labor government.

We are concerned that there has not been adequate scrutiny of this legislation. The debate has come on in this chamber, and yet, at the same time, businesses around the country are going under. There have been 27,000 businesses that have failed under the Albanese government, and that should be a red flag. It's belling the cat. It's of great concern that not only is productivity going backwards in this country but red tape is increasing and economic growth is stagnating. The Albanese government's solution seems to be more and more red tape that is holding Australian businesses back. We should be trying to reduce red tape and overburdensome regulation on Australian businesses, not adding more.