Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will be opposing these amendments. It's quite an extraordinary feat, but they make a bad bill even worse. Let's be clear what's happening here. The process here has been absolutely appalling. A 243-page bill containing extensive, detailed provisions was released the week before last. Yesterday afternoon the government released 34 pages of additional amendments—around 150 amendments. This is a hopeless and chaotic process.

Let's be absolutely clear about one of the specific provisions in the amendments the government has released because their union paymasters have been onto the Leader of the House and said: 'Sorry, that's not enough. We need more.' Specifically, there are provisions in these amendments which give unions the power to veto deals that have been done—enterprise agreements that have been done—when a so-called 'bargaining representative', that's to say a union official, declines to give consent to an agreement that has been reached between an employer and the majority of its employees. That is, of itself enough, for the opposition to be trenchantly opposed to this amendment, as we are trenchantly opposed to the totality of the bill that is before the House.

We've had the Leader of the House seeking to give the impression that there's been consultation. He's put on his most reasonable voice, which should put everybody on notice. Let's be absolutely clear about what has been said by industry peak bodies:

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Australian Industry Group; Business Council of Australia; Minerals Council of Australia; the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA); and National Farmers Federation are united in a call for the Government to either abandon or substantially amend various contentious elements of the Bill relating to bargaining.

The Bill, as currently framed, should not be passed by Parliament.

We jointly call on the Government to permit time for a thorough consideration of the content and implications of the Bill. This deeper consideration should include removing the provisions to allow widespread use of multi-employer bargaining backed by strike action. The Australian Parliament should remain open to making further amendments.

And here's another very interesting observation made by these organisations which flies entirely in the face of the honeyed words of the Leader of the House, seeking to give the impression that there's been consultation, that all is in agreement. These organisations say that the legislation as drafted does not reflect broad consensus arising out of engagement with industry at the Jobs and Skills Summit or subsequent consultations. These are bodies representing the major prosperity-generating sectors of the Australian economy, the major employment-generating sectors of the Australian economy. They are saying very clearly that more time is needed, and they are fundamentally opposed, as is clear, to a number of elements of this bill. They particularly highlight the provisions in the bill that would allow widespread use of multi-employer bargaining by strike action.

Let's be clear what is before the House, both in the substantive bill and in the amendments that were circulated yesterday. It is putting Australia at risk of returning to the bad old days of the 1970s, with repeated strike action and a sluggish and unproductive economy. The bill and the amendments make it worse, because they further weaken the arrangements in relation to enterprise agreements because they allow a union to veto such an agreement, even when there has been a vote in favour of it by employees.

There are some minor window-dressing concessions in here, but the simple fact is that this is a very bad bill, taking the Australian economy and our society and our community backwards—extraordinarily. You would have thought it was hard to achieve but, extraordinarily, the amendments make a bad situation worse, and the opposition will be opposing the government's amendments as we opposed the bill.

See this speech in context