Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Workplace Relations and follows the answer he has just given. I refer the minister to the advice of the senior legal manager at the Office of the Employment Advocate to Xstrata-owned Newlands Coal on 19 April this year that said, of a proposed union collective agreement:

“Bona fide union business” can include leave to attend training.

As such, I have concluded it falls within the terms of Regulation 8.5(1)(c)—

that is, prohibition. Minister, doesn’t this mean that a clause for leave to attend union organised training courses for occupational health and safety matters is prohibited content in an agreement? Isn’t it the case that the OEA is right and the minister is wrong? Why did the minister mislead the Australian people on the fundamental matter of occupational health and safety in the workplace, both then and again in the answer he has just given?

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