Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I present a supplementary explanatory memorandum to the bill and—by leave—I move government amendments (1) to (5) together:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (table items 5 to 9), omit the table items, substitute:

(2) Schedule 3, heading to Division 1, page 43 (line 2), omit the heading.

(3) Schedule 3, items 17 to 23, page 43 (line 4) to page 44 (line 10), omit the items.

(4) Schedule 3, Division 2, page 46 (lines 5 to 20), omit the Division.

(5) Schedule 7, item 1, page 102 (lines 19 to 22), omit subclause 50(4).

These amendments will remove measures in the bill that were to effect a change to section 189 of the Fair Work Act 2009. That section is the existing exceptional circumstances provision, which was included in the Fair Work Act by Labor in 2009. It already enables the Fair Work Commission to approve enterprise agreements that do not pass the better off overall test in exceptional circumstances. The bill before the parliament today originally adapted this existing provision to take account of the exceptional circumstances that some businesses have suffered because of COVID-19. It provided that the Fair Work Commission might approve enterprise agreements that did not pass the BOOT where it was satisfied that it was appropriate to do so, taking into account all of the circumstances, including the extent of employee support for the agreement, the impact on the business of the COVID-19 pandemic, and safeguards, which were not explicitly mentioned in the current law under Labor's existing exemption. The removal of that exemption is based on the fact that, having gone through rounds of consultation with the crossbench, the government considers, having listened to the crossbench—particularly to statements made by One Nation senators to us—that the best prospect for the pragmatic, sensible reforms in the overwhelming part of this bill to be moved through the Senate was to remove this modest exemption to section 189, which is what these amendments achieve.

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