Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table a revised explanatory memorandum relating to the Transport Security Amendment (Serious Crime) Bill 2020. I move:

That these bills be now read a second time

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

AGED CARE LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (IMPROVED HOME CARE PAYMENT ADMINISTRATION NO. 1) BILL 2020

I am pleased to introduce the Aged Care Amendment (Improved Home Care Payment Administration No. 1) Bill 2020.

This Bill amends the way that home care providers are paid Government subsidy.

Providers currently receive the monthly subsidy for a home care recipient in advance, using an estimate based on previous months. The provider then lodges a claim after the end of the month, at which time a reconciliation occurs. Underpayments of subsidy are then rectified immediately, while overpayments are withheld from future payments.

This Bill will amend the legislation such that a provider will not receive a payment in advance, but will be paid the monthly subsidy for a home care recipient upon lodgement of a claim with Services Australia after the end of each month.

The Government intends to introduce a second Bill that will amend the legislation such that home care providers will only be paid subsidy for services rendered to a care recipient during a month, with Services Australia retaining the unspent subsidy for which a care recipient is eligible in each month.

This unspent subsidy will be available for a provider to draw down on behalf of a care recipient as services are provided in future.

This will address stakeholder concerns regarding unspent funds and align home care arrangements with other Government programs, such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

FAIR WORK AMENDMENT (IMPROVING UNPAID PARENTAL LEAVE FOR PARENTS OF STILLBORN BABIES AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL 2020

The Fair Work Amendment (Improving Unpaid Parental Leave For Parents Of Stillborn Babies And Other Measures) Bill 2020 introduces a package of important changes to the unpaid parental leave provisions in the Fair Work Act.

COVID-19 has dramatically changed how parents are combining work and care. That's why, in addition to the various measures already introduced by the Government to support employees impacted by COVID-19, the Government is pressing ahead with delivering on important reforms to unpaid parental leave as part of its ongoing commitment to parents and families.

These changes will provide improved support to employees who experience stillbirth or the death of a child in the first 24 months of life and introduce much needed flexibility into the unpaid parental leave provisions, which employees and employers alike have criticised for being too rigid and preventing them from agreeing on more flexible leave arrangements following birth.

Under these changes, parents whose babies are hospitalised following birth will also have greater flexibility in deciding how they can use their unpaid parental leave.

Finally, the changes will also provide all parents with more choices in how they take their unpaid parental leave in a way that suits their family, to complement the changes the Government recently introduced to increase flexibility in the Government's Paid Parental Leave scheme.

Stillbirth and death of a child in the first 24 months of life

Stillbirth is a tragic event for any family. Six babies are stillborn every day in Australia, making it the most common form of child mortality in Australia.

Informed by the recommendations of the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Stillbirth Education and Research, the Government is developing the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan. The Government has brought together key government and non-government organisations to improve stillbirth prevention and care, raise awareness and strengthen education, improve bereavement care and community support following stillbirth, improve stillbirth reporting and data collection, and prioritise stillbirth research.

Under the current Fair Work Act, parents on birth-related unpaid parental leave who experience a stillbirth or the death of their child in the first 24 months of life can be recalled to work from their leave with just six weeks' notice from their employer. Parents on adoption-related unpaid parental leave whose child dies in the first 24 months of life can be recalled to work from their leave with just four weeks' notice.

If these parents are not already on unpaid parental leave, the Fair Work Act allows an employer to cancel their upcoming leave in these circumstances.

While recognising most employers are supportive of their employees, particularly where they have suffered such a tragic loss, the Bill will ensure that the entitlement to unpaid parental leave for a parent whose baby is stillborn will be as it would have been if their baby had lived.

For an employee whose child dies during the first 24 months of life, the Bill will ensure that their employer will no longer be able to cancel any upcoming unpaid parental leave they might have, or, if they are already on leave, require them to return to work earlier than they may wish to.

The Bill will also provide better and clearer access to compassionate leave in relation to stillborn babies and babies who die during a parent's unpaid parental leave. The Government understands that employers want to support employees who have experienced such a loss. Under this bill, an employee will be allowed to access compassionate leave for their stillborn or infant babies when already on unpaid parental leave without having to forego their right to either.

Employers can of course continue to offer leave that goes beyond the minimum safety net, including paid parental leave through enterprise agreements, employment contracts and workplace policies.

While recognising that the pain of stillbirth and infant death can never be repaired through a workplace entitlement, I hope these changes will provide some peace of mind for parents in these traumatic circumstances.

Premature birth and immediate hospitalisation

The Bill will also remove a current legislative barrier that hampers sensible arrangements being made at the workplace level where an employee's baby is hospitalised immediately following birth.

Many parents of babies who are hospitalised after birth - a situation that particularly affects babies born prematurely - have said they would like the option to work while their baby is in hospital and have more time at home with their babies once they are discharged from hospital. Currently under the Fair Work Act, if an employer and employee agree for the employee to return to work while their baby is in hospital, the employee will then lose the remainder of their unpaid parental leave entitlement.

The Bill will remove this restriction, allowing employers and employees to agree to the employee 'pausing' their unpaid parental leave, returning to work for the period their baby is in hospital and resuming leave once their baby is discharged from hospital.

It is important that the legislative framework gives employers and employees the ability to discuss and make arrangements that suit them. Importantly, those parents who 'pause' their unpaid parental leave will ultimately have more unpaid parental leave available to spend with their baby at home.

Flexible unpaid parental leave

Finally, this Bill will make unpaid parental leave more flexible for families to structure their work and caring in ways that suit them by introducing the capacity for an employee to take a portion of their unpaid parental leave flexibly.

This change will provide employees with greater choice in how they use up to 30 days of their existing 12-month unpaid parental leave entitlement.

This change complements the new flexible parental leave payment under the Government's Paid Parental Leave scheme. Employees will be able to take up to 30 days of unpaid parental leave flexibly and claim flexible parental leave payment from Services Australia for these days, if they are eligible. Ensuring there is a corresponding leave entitlement to enable parents to claim flexible parental leave payments will reduce unnecessary stress for parents in the joyful but often demanding period of new parenthood.

Under the proposed changes to the unpaid parental leave entitlement and the recent changes to the Parental Leave Payment, parents will have access to up to 30 flexible days until the baby's second birthday.

This change is significant in that it reduces the current rigidity of unpaid parental leave. Many parents would like to combine working and caring for their newborn but are not currently able to achieve this using unpaid parental leave, which generally must be taken in a single continuous block. Once a parent returns to work, they will usually forfeit any remaining untaken leave.

This current rule may discourage women in particular from reconnecting with the workforce after their baby is born as they will lose their entitlement to any further unpaid parental leave, and may deter men from taking leave to care for their newborns as they must stop working completely while they are on unpaid parental leave.

The new capacity for parents to take up to 30 days of their 12 month entitlement to unpaid parental leave flexibly could mean, for example, a new parent spending a block of unpaid parental leave with their newborn after birth and then taking 30 days flexibly after they return to work.

Employees will be able to take these days as a single day, groups of days or a single continuous block.

The measures in the Bill will require employees to give their employer appropriate notice of their intention to use some of their 12-month entitlement flexibly and separate notice before actually taking flexible unpaid parental leave, aligned with the existing notice provisions for unpaid parental leave in the Fair Work Act as far as possible.

This will assist employers to best support their employees who are new parents while also balancing and managing workflow priorities and the needs of their broader workforce.

Conclusion

The amendments in the Bill are balanced reforms that will provide new parents with more choices and flexibility about how they use parental leave, and reflect contemporary expectations about how families should be able to structure work and family arrangements.

These expectations and the needs of Australian families for greater flexibility to combine work and care have been brought into sharp relief by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. More flexibility for parents in how leave is taken following birth is an important part of reshaping how we approach work and care.

The improvements to the unpaid parental leave provisions of the Fair Work Act contained in the Bill have been carefully considered and consulted on. They are based on the data and evidence presented to the Government by key stakeholders, including, importantly, by parents themselves.

On behalf of the Government, I want to thank all of those parents who shared their stories, noting that for many of you these were incredibly painful memories to relive.

NATIVE TITLE AMENDMENT (INFRASTRUCTURE AND PUBLIC FACILITIES) BILL 2020

Improving the livelihoods of Indigenous Australians by unlocking job-creating infrastructure projects and the positive impacts of critical public facilities for remote communities is needed over the coming years to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To realise social and economic security, Indigenous Australians require the provision of housing and essential infrastructure. Timely access to safe and suitable public housing, education and health facilities on Indigenous held land is fundamental to this goal.

In recognition of the work the Attorney-General and I are progressing on native title reform, I introduce the Native Title Amendment (Infrastructure and Public Facilities) Bill 2020, to extend the operation of section 24JAA for a further 10 years. This will help secure approvals for public housing and infrastructure on Indigenous held land where alternative approval processes have stalled. This will deliver public health, housing, education, policing and emergency services infrastructure to meet the current and emerging needs of Indigenous Australians.

The Bill ensures section 24JAA will continue to operate as originally passed by the Parliament of Australia in 2010. To date, due to differing land tenure and legislation requirements across the jurisdictions, section 24JAA has only been used in Queensland and Western Australia.

In Western Australia and Queensland, the provision's extension is particularly important. It will enable state and local governments, such as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Councils of North Queensland, access to Indigenous held land to build critical infrastructure for the benefit of local Indigenous communities, when expediency is needed and alternative pathways are not available. Without section 24JAA, provision of infrastructure may not be possible in some situations.

The provision is a streamlined mechanism to facilitate Indigenous land access by state and local governments in limited circumstances. Section 24JAA is part of the Native Title Act's 'future acts regime' which specifies how acts that affect native can be validly done on land where native title exists. Section 24JAA requires native title holders and claimants to be notified about the proposed public works and provides them with the opportunity to be consulted about the impact of the proposed future act on their native title rights and interests.

In accordance with the established non-extinguishment principle in the Native Title Act, the Bill continues to ensure native title is not extinguished, by the construction of public housing and infrastructure, and the provision provides for compensation.

Section 24JAA operates as an important mechanism between an ILUA and compulsory acquisition to enable a future act to be validly done to progress critical Indigenous housing and infrastructure in a timely and effective manner while safeguarding native title rights and interests for the future. This reflects the reality that land dealings may be complex and sometimes involve lengthy negotiations and timeframes given the different parties, processes, regulations and interests involved.

All other state and local government planning and building requirements will still need to be followed. This includes protections, such as cultural heritage legislation. Through the consultation process, section 24JAA provides an additional opportunity for native title holders to advise the state authority about other planning needs and cultural heritage sites.

Forty-two per cent of Indigenous Australians living in remote communities reside in overcrowded or severely overcrowded housing.

Although, states and territories are responsible for public housing, the Australian Government has invested over $5.4 billion since 2008 to support the states and territories to address remote overcrowding. This investment reduced overcrowding from 52.1 per cent in 2008 to 41.3 per cent in 2014-15, and was projected to fall to 37.4 per cent in 2018.

Since 2018, the Government has paid $121 million to Western Australia, $37.5 million to South Australian, and this year is investing $105 million in Queensland through the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Councils to assist the states to continue to meet their obligations to provide remote housing for Indigenous Australians. This funding, coupled with each state's own remote housing commitments, represents a pipeline of capital works to continue to address remote overcrowding and unlock land and economic opportunities for the benefit of Indigenous Australians into the future.

As recently agreed by all Australian governments and the Coalition of Peaks, the new National Agreement on Closing the Gap sets ambitious targets, including housing, for states to meet by 2031. Section 24JAA will help to facilitate the timely delivery of public housing infrastructure to meet these targets, particularly in Queensland and Western Australia given their land tenure arrangements and unmet Indigenous housing need. High need communities on Indigenous land stand to benefit the most from the timely delivery of assets and infrastructure to help reduce overcrowding.

ILUAs are the standard and preferred mechanism for negotiating acts on land subject to native title rights and interests. However, there is no timeframe for completing negotiations and entering into an ILUA. The Queensland and Western Australia governments have advised that negotiating an ILUA for the type of infrastructure covered by 24JAA can take between 18 months to three years to complete. However, where there are intractable blockages, section 24JAA facilitates investment in Indigenous communities that can be made, including compensation for communities.

This is why since 2011, section 24JAA has been used sparingly, approximately 126 times on almost one thousand (961) residential lots. The provision has been used in Queensland 52 times and in Western Australia 74 times. This includes 778 public houses and other facilities in Queensland, and 312 public houses and 73 other facilities in Western Australia.

While section 24JAA has mainly been used for public housing, the provision has also been used for emergency facilities such as women's shelters, fire brigades, police stations and child safety housing; public education and health facilities and staff housing for public school teachers and public health employees.

The Australian Government and the native title sector recognise ILUAs are the preferred mechanism for all parties negotiating acts on land subject to native title. This is why I am only proposing for a temporary extension. Section 24JAA is a pragmatic tool to be used when an ILUA is facing intractable negotiations or cannot be reached. Retaining section 24JAA provides an alternative that facilitates the critical infrastructure and safeguards the native title rights and interests for the long term.

Section 24JAA has allowed infrastructure to be delivered that would otherwise not be possible. For example, Queensland Health entered into an ILUA to construct a wellbeing centre and staff accommodation in a remote community in Queensland. The ILUA was unresolved after 18 months of negotiation due to contested claims to country on other native title matters. Queensland Health used section 24JAA for the grant of the lease to deliver new health facilities. As a result, the whole community continues to benefit from health services instead of being disadvantaged by a broader dispute between groups.

Throughout the targeted consultations on the operation of section 24JAA in 2017, 2019 and this year undertaken by the Attorney-General's Department and the National Indigenous Australians Agency, there were views expressed for and against the extension of the provision. These views and the stakeholder experiences that were shared, reinforced the importance that when dealing with Indigenous land and native title holders, the needs of the community, whether it be housing, health or education are paramount, and safeguarding native title rights and interests over the long term are essential.

I am conscious of the need to balance the rights and interests of native title holders and meet the needs of Indigenous Australians. For these reasons, the Bill retains the temporary status of the provision. This serves to appropriately address unmet remote housing and critical infrastructure needs while maintaining a long term commitment to safeguarding the rights and interests of native title holders. Extending the provision for a further 10 years provides the opportunity to reassess the need for the provision at a later time.

The Bill provides for native title holders and claimants to retain a mechanism for raising concerns about land use while ensuring government investment in Indigenous communities can be made in a timely and effective manner.The extension of section 24JAA will ensure relevant state governments can continue to invest in Indigenous and remote communities, respond to emerging needs and ensure better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Investment in housing and infrastructure construction will support economic recovery and stimulate industry and employment, particularly as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, I would like to thank my colleague, the Attorney-General, for our joint work on native title reform in recognition of our mutual interest in advancing the interests of Indigenous Australians.

TRANSPORT SECURITY AMENDMENT (SERIOUS CRIME) BILL 2020

The Australian Government has the responsibility to keep Australia safe and secure, and we need to do more to protect Australia's airports and seaports.

This is why we are introducing the Transport Security Amendment (Serious Crime) Bill 2019to ensure that Australia's airports, seaports and offshore facilities are no longer safe havens for serious criminal activity.

Serious crime is a major threat to the Australian way of life. It causes enormous human suffering and is estimated to cost the Australian economy more than $47 billion per annum.

Airports and seaports are transit points for organised crime groups to import weapons, illicit drugs and other harmful goods into Australia. This is a serious threat to Australia's security and prosperity which we need to prevent.

The 2015 National Ice Taskforce Report and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Law Enforcement recommended the Australian Government harden the aviation and maritime environments against organised crime by strengthening the eligibility criteria for the aviation and maritime security identification card (ASIC and MSIC) schemes.

The ASIC and MSIC schemes are essential to the Government's approach to transport security. They ensure that all those accessing the most secure areas of Australia's airports and seaports have undergone a background check. However, the background check only determines whether an applicant is a threat to aviation or maritime security, it does not consider whether they pose a criminal risk.

Our airports and seaports are vulnerable to exploitation by serious criminals and terrorists. While the schemes have been very effective in helping to protect Australia from terrorism, they have still allowed approximately 100 individuals with serious criminal convictions or links to organised crime to have access to the most sensitive areas of our airports and seaports.

Organised criminals are exploiting the schemes to gain a major source of revenue from the illicit drug market and this market can serve to fund a broad range of criminal activities, including terrorism.

Drug trafficking is also an attractive choice for organised criminals and terrorists in Australia as some people are prepared to pay a premium price for illicit substances compared to other countries.

The Bill will expand the purpose of the Aviation Transport Security Act 2004 and the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act 2003 to prevent serious criminal influence and activity from occurring at our security-controlled airports and seaports. This will make it harder for ASICs and MSICs to be issued to individuals who pose a criminal risk or have a serious criminal record.

The Bill will establish the regulatory framework for introducing new eligibility criteria to address the existing vulnerability across both schemes. The new eligibility criteria will specifically target serious criminal offences, in addition to safeguarding Australia's airports, seaports and offshore facilities from terrorism. It will also ensure that Australia's airports and seaports are no longer places for serious criminal activity, including the trafficking of illicit goods such as narcotics and weapons.

In addition, the proposed legislative amendments will strengthen the regulatory framework by harmonising the existing eligibility under each scheme.

It is intended that new eligibility criteria under the amended Regulations will introduce new offence categories which include:

The new criteria will ensure that those convicted of these offences will be ineligible to hold an ASIC or MSIC.

This Bill will strengthen the ASIC and MSIC schemes to ensure that we prevent individuals posing a high criminal risk from holding a card which is consistent with the findings of a range of parliamentary reviews.

The Bill reduces the ability for organised crime groups to engage in illegal activities at airports and seaports.

The Australian Government is committed to improving the safety and security outcomes for all Australians.

The Bill should be approved without delay, as it is substantially the same as the previous Bill, which was considered by both the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills and the Senate Standing Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee. The imperative for this legislation is growing stronger as the costs and impacts of serious crime continue to grow.

I commend the Bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the bills be listed on the Notice Paper as separate orders of the day.