Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I am not convinced by the minister's views that there will be no impact. I think it is fair to say that the Queensland government is also not convinced, given the extensive submission they made to the Senate inquiry. There are, of course, other concerns that have been raised with respect to the bill by other jurisdictions. I turn to, if I can, the Northern Territory government, which made a very significant submission to the Senate inquiry in relation to this bill. It included:

It is difficult to estimate how many employers would pursue an option to participate in the Comcare scheme but the potential consequence could be:

something, of course, the Queensland government raised in their submission as well—

These are clearly concerns that the Northern Territory government, a conservative government, along with another conservative government, the Queensland government, have raised with the federal government. I would have to argue that in relation to the summing up and in the second reading speech by the minister there has been no attention to many of the matters that have been raised in the submissions by these two jurisdictions in terms of the potentially adverse impacts of this bill on their jurisdictions, on small and medium enterprises, on premium costs, on the way in which those schemes will operate and on job losses that may arise. I ask the minister, therefore, to respond, on behalf of the government, to those specific concerns that have been referred to by the NT government in terms of the impact that may arise if this bill were to be enacted. Clearly, the Northern Territory government has serious concerns not only for workers in that territory but also for businesses that are likely to be adversely impacted upon as a result of this bill being brought into law.

I ask the minister to respond to those matters raised by the NT government. There are currently 44 inspectors in the Comcare scheme. If large employers flee their obligations in the state and territory jurisdictions and go to the Comcare scheme, can the minister on behalf of the government explain the extent to which there will be an increase in inspectors under the Comcare scheme? Inspectors do the very important job of preventing injury in workplaces. Is the minister aware of the detail on whether that would be commensurate with the number of workplaces added to the Comcare scheme insofar as their responsibility to inspect sites? In other words, if Comcare were to double, would that mean Comcare inspectors would double, at the very least?

It is fair enough to ask a question about what impact there will be on preventing injury and death of workers under this scheme. There is nothing more important than health and safety in workplaces. When you are dealing with employment matters, there is nothing more important than preventing the serious injury or death of a worker on a site, and yet there have been no answers in the submission made by the NT government and no answers about resources dedicated to preventing industry in Comcare, if it were to increase in size, if large employers fled state schemes and joined the national scheme.

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