Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

This is typical of Senator Cash and this government: go some way to try and deal with an issue but don't actually deal with all of the circumstances that are required to be dealt with. Senator Cash has indicated that she thinks this is incredibly broad and will have unintended consequences. I'll tell you what is broad, and that is the stealing of workers' wages across the economy. And it's not just in franchising; it's in a whole range of areas. The unintended consequence of where we are at the moment is that some of the most vulnerable workers in this country end up having their wages stolen, not being able to feed their family and not being able to put a roof over their head. And people are getting away with it.

This bill sets out the principle that if you are in employment then there is a prohibition on unreasonable demands for money. The same principle should apply if a prospective employee is seeking employment. I know the minister is still a bit embarrassed after the fiasco we had with the last fair work bill we had here, because of the demonstrably sloppy drafting. The minister had to accept amendment after amendment after amendment because the drafting from the government was so bad. That's why tonight we're getting a bit of payback, a bit of rhetoric and a bit of rubbish from the minister on this issue.

What we say in these amendments is that it has to be unreasonable in the circumstances. It is defined, it is qualified and it goes to making sure that we don't have prospective employees accepting a job on a condition of employment that is unreasonable in the circumstances. This is probably where a worker is actually more vulnerable—when they're a prospective employee and they're not on the job, especially if the job has a union on the site. If you are rolling up for a job then this is a bit like the old Work Choices era, where a prospective employee is given a demand by the employer and they either sign or just go because they don't get the job.

This is where workers have specific vulnerabilities. I don't think that restricting this to where the minister wants it restricted to actually deals with the wage theft that is out there. The principle of 'unreasonable demands' remains the same whether you are a prospective employee or an employee. You should not be subject to unreasonable demands. That's the point we are making tonight. That's why we, Minister, think that this is the way to go. This would protect prospective employees. It has to be unreasonable in the circumstances. Minister, have you got a view in relation to 'unreasonable in the circumstances'?