Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning Senator Pocock, Senator Tyrrell and I stood with first responders to ask Minister Burke to split out four elements of the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023. The first one is an amendment to legislation that will make it easier for Federal Police, paramedics and firefighters to claim for mental health conditions like PTSD without having to first prove that they actually have PTSD. There are people out there who put their lives on the line for us every day. It's not all we can do; it's the least that we can do right now.

The second one is another amendment, which will protect victims of family and domestic violence from being sacked or discriminated against in their workplace. The third one allows redundancy payments for workers at small businesses that have gone out of business. It also protects redundancy payments for workers who might be working for larger businesses that have become technically a small business due to insolvency. The fourth one is about regulation of silica, like the dust from stone benchtops, into the asbestos safety act. There is currently no national regulation on silica, and this is a massive worry. It is estimated that nearly half a million young tradies are exposed to silica dust, with thousands already diagnosed with silicosis.

These amendments should never have been put into the industrial relations bill in the first place. It is a 200-page bill, and the explanatory memorandum is over 500 pages long. The crossbench got this last week, the same day as the House. I know why you did it, Minister Burke. The minister thought that putting these important and non-controversial amendments into the industrial relations bill would mean the government could accuse the crossbench of holding up help and protections for first responders, for victims of family and domestic violence, for small businesses and for tradies at risk of silicosis. Minister, you can now do the right thing. The ball is in your court.