Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The unintended consequences of this legislation could have incredibly negative impacts on small businesses in my electorate, and they are still recovering from the impacts of COVID-19. It is misleading to the Australian public to claim that this will get wages moving, when there are going to be months of delay and negotiation—complex processes—and the winners will be the unions and the lawyers; it will not be the workers. It is disingenuous of the government to claim that this legislation will assist feminised industries, when many small businesses are run by women. They will be the first to suffer when this legislation brings an absolute stalemate to sectors like child care.

In Warringah, there are at least 370 businesses that would be able to engage in or be compelled to engage in multi-employer bargaining under the current definition of a 'small business', having less than 15 employees. The added complexity of being compelled to engage in the multi-employer bargaining process will put fear into many business owners. They are struggling to keep their heads above water, still reeling from the impacts of COVID-19 and increasing inflation.

Productivity impacts are dealt with in amendments (1) to (3). They deal with the potential impacts on the productivity—

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