Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all honourable members for their contributions to this debate on the Fair Work Amendment (Repeal of 4 Yearly Reviews and Other Measures Bill) 2017. I also thank the honourable senators on the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee for their inquiry into the provisions of the bill. The government has amended the bill in response to their recommendations.

This bill implements sensible measures to fix clear issues with the operation of the Fair Work Act. The bill repeals the requirement for four-yearly reviews of modern awards. This measure is widely supported by both unions and employer groups. The Productivity Commission found that the current system is hugely resource-intensive for all involved. I think this finding comes as no surprise to any stakeholders who have endured long hours and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars during the current drawn-out process.

This process is so important and expensive that the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group and the Australian Council of Trade Unions saw fit to jointly write to the Minister for Employment, asking the government to abolish these reviews—we are on a unity ticket on this one. The $87 million in regulatory savings this achieves is an important step in reducing complexity in the workplace relations systems. To ensure an appropriate transition period, the bill will allow the current four-yearly review to conclude in a timely manner under the existing framework. Importantly, it will remove the requirement for a new review to commence in January 2018. This is something that is broadly supported by all stakeholders. The government has also moved amendments to clarify that the Fair Work Commission can complete any reviews that have commenced but have not concluded by 1 January 2018 in respect of large numbers of awards, known as 'common issues', such as the ACTU's claim for a family friendly work arrangements clause in all modern awards. This amendment acknowledges concerns raised by the Labor senators during the Senate inquiry.

The bill makes another commonsense change to the Fair Work Act by allowing the Fair Work Commission to overlook minor procedural or technical errors when approving an enterprise agreement, as long as it is satisfied that the employees were not likely to have been disadvantaged by the error. The inflexibility of the requirements for approving an enterprise agreement is well known. There are numerous examples of minor errors, like inadvertently providing an incorrect phone number on a notice of employee representational rights, unnecessarily holding up the approval of enterprise agreements that have already received a majority yes vote from employees. This inflexibility does not protect workers in any way—it just delays potential pay rises.

There have been some inaccurate criticisms that this bill somehow removes safeguards or equates them to technicalities. To be clear, the bill does not undermine existing safeguards in the Fair Work Act that are designed to protect workers or equate these safeguards to mere technicalities. These safeguards remain, and the government expects that they continue to be strongly enforced. The government has further amendments to allow schedule 2 of the bill to apply to applications to approve enterprise agreements that were made to the Fair Work Commission before the commencement of the bill. This recommendation was made in response to the Fair Work Commission's submission to the Senate inquiry.

The Senate inquiry also heard concerns from Professor Andrew Stewart about the use of the word 'disadvantaged' in these provisions and that it may require clarification. The government has moved amendments to make clear that the term 'disadvantaged' relates to the employee's ability to genuinely agree to a proposed enterprise agreement. The Fair Work Commission has observed an increase in the number of potentially non-compliant notices of employee representational rights following a change to the Fair Work Regulations 2009, which specify the form of the notice, earlier this year. If schedule 2 were only to apply from commencement, the Fair Work Commission would need to reject these agreements. This amendment is sensible and appropriately addresses the concerns of the Senate inquiry and the Fair Work Commission.

The bill balances common sense and flexibility in the agreement-making process. The bill protects existing safeguards provided to employees during bargaining by enabling the Fair Work Commission to approve an agreement despite a minor procedural or technical error only if it is satisfied that the employees were not likely to have been disadvantaged because of the error. Finally, the bill will also implement the sensible reforms suggested by the Hon. Peter Heerey AM QC following his inquiry into complaints about former Fair Work Commission Vice President Michael Lawler. There is currently no formal mechanism to inform the parliament's consideration of allegations of misbehaviour or incapacity against Fair Work Commission members. The bill will allow parliament to take appropriate action by quickly establishing an inquiry into such matters and be well informed of any case for asking the Governor-General to terminate their appointment. These changes proposed by this bill are commonsense measures that will improve the practical operation of the workplace relations system. They reflect recommendations of two independent reviews.

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