Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Did it? The change of name went through the Senate? There you go, if that is the case. The government was so embarrassed about the term 'Fair Work Australia' and it has been such a tarnished organisation that their report came back and recommended a change of name. I hear it is now called the Fair Work Commission, which is hardly the change of name that I think they were originally intending. But, notwithstanding that, the Fair Work Commission, if that is to be its name, is still the creation of the Labor Party and still has its faults. Certainly in relation to the selection of default funds under modern awards, our view is that this is not something that Fair Work Australia, or the Fair Work Commission—whatever it is—should be doing.

They are widely criticised because this is where, within the heartbeat of the minister, always, every day, we come to the defence of the unions and union interests. Unfortunately for union officials, the great bulk of the Australian workforce, about 82 per cent of the workforce, is outside of the union movement. So when industry funds, which are union partnership funds, are directly involved because of an industrial organisation in becoming default funds, in a sense it disenfranchises the 82 per cent of employees who are not members of the unions but who are still looking for proper representation.

So we are moving amendments to level the playing field, to put an end to what seems to be a rather clever—rather disingenuous in one sense, but rather clever—decision of the government to create industry funds overwhelmingly as the default funds, as a result of decisions by Fair Work Australia. We want choice and we want competition in the selection of default funds. As we have done before, we are again moving amendments that will provide that competition and, importantly, give employees as much of a say as the union officials and Fair Work Australia about where their money ends up. I commend to the House what are very sensible amendments. I hope the government accepts these amendments, because they are good amendments and improve the quality of our financial services system.

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