Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Goldstein for the question. I acknowledge the member, for different parts of this bill—particularly on the gender equity parts of the bill—has been an advocate for those sections long before she became a member in this place, and, since becoming a member, this is the first time in question time that the member has raised it with me. It's been raised both on the floor of the House and privately, and in writing to me as well, so I respect the fierce advocacy of this issue of how the small-business carve-out is done.

I'll say a few things in response. First of all, and it goes to some of the issues that have been raised by the opposition today as well, the expectation with respect to small business is overwhelmingly it will be the cooperative stream that's used. With the cooperative stream, it's very much an opt in; there's no industrial action. Effectively, model enterprise agreements are made available that small businesses and their staff can voluntarily opt into. That involves no fees and no consultants, and we expect overwhelmingly that would be the way that small business would engage with these reforms. With respect to the single-interest stream, the small business carve-out that is there at the moment is simply the definition that is already elsewhere in the act for small business—a definition which those opposite did not seek to change in their entire time in office.

I respect the argument that the member for Goldstein and other members of the crossbench have made where they've said that, particularly for multi-employer bargaining, they would like to see this go as a broader exclusion. That's been raised not only by the member for Goldstein but by a number of members of the crossbench. This is one of the issues where consultation and negotiation is happening with the Senate crossbench. As I said when we were in the in-detail stage—

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