Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Committee does not insist on amendments 5 and 41 to which the House has disagreed and agrees to the amendments made by the House in their place.

The House of Representatives has agreed to 46 of the 48 amendments made to this legislation by the Senate. The two that were opposed both related to paid parental leave in schedule 7. The original schedule 7 was intended to remove the requirement for all employers to act as the pay clerk for the government's Paid Parental Leave Scheme. In passing the original schedule 7, the House of Representatives demonstrated its commitment to removing this administrative burden for all businesses from 1 July 2014. The Senate's revised schedule 7 would have removed that requirement only for employers with fewer than 20 employees. In opposing these amendments, the House of Representatives agreed to its own amendment that would omit schedule 7 of the bill relating to paid parental leave and make a consequential amendment to the commencement provision in the bill. This measure has since been introduced into the House of Representatives in a separate bill, the Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill 2014.

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition will be supporting the amendment put forward by the government. We maintain our position on the issues around parental leave, and that debate will now occur under legislation brought forward by the government. In that case, we are supporting the amendment before the chair.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens likewise will be supporting this amendment, given that the schedule has been extracted and put into a separate bill. We will have that debate at that time. Having said that, we still do not support many of the schedules, but we see what the government has done with this particular amendment. We will have that debate on the PPL later.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by Senator Fifield be agreed to.

Question agreed to.

The question is that the resolution of the committee be reported.

Question agreed to.

The committee has considered message No. 79 and has resolved not to insist on the amendments 5 and 41 and agrees to the amendments made by the House.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the report of the committee be adopted.

Question agreed to.

Resolution reported; report adopted.