Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Vasta, damn them if they do not think that this is important, because this legislation is important. For those opposite, just so they understand—and I am going to conclude briefly after this—Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria was able to provide valuable input into the development of the legislation. This is what Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria has to say:

… we are very pleased that it has shaped up in a way that we believe meets our concerns and deals with the practical issues affecting volunteers.

The legislation will be a simple change to the Fair Work Act …

So, yes, it is a thin piece of legislation—a simple change to the Fair Work Act. We do not think you need a multitude of regulations to fix this. It is a simple change. Often the simple things in life are the best. The legislation will be a simple change to the Fair Work Act, making it objectionable for workplace agreements to restrict or limit an emergency services organisation's ability to: engage or deploy its volunteers; provide support or equipment to those volunteers; manage its relationships with or work with any recognised emergency management body in relation to those volunteers; otherwise manage its operations in relation to those volunteers.

I will conclude on this note, because others want to speak on this. On polling day, I went to a booth in my electorate, and I will not name the booth because it could get the people who were working on that booth in trouble. They were two Labor Party members handing out how-to-vote cards for the Labor Party. They approached me and said, 'We are handing out how-to-vote cards for the Labor Party because we have been members most of our lives, but we wish that we were handing out for the coalition because of what the Labor Party are doing to volunteer spirit and organisations in the state of Victoria.'

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