Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on this industrial relations bill, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023. Those opposite have been very calculated in how they've framed the debate about the industrial relations bill that sits before us today—very calculating indeed. We're told that this is all about closing loopholes. They want so much of our focus to be on this framing that they even titled it the closing loopholes bill. In fact, I have heard that the minister is in line for a Guinness world record for his relentless use of the word 'loophole'. The frequency and the intensity of his exhortations sparked my curiosity because in my time in this place I have learnt that when a Labor government wants to hide something they really lean into the framing, and they've done exactly that with this legislation.

But there is something they've missed. In their attempts to confuse and confound with loopholes of loopholes, they have missed that it is actually a word with a double meaning, and its other meaning reveals an apt metaphor for what is going on with this bill today and how this Labor government treats the Australian people. The word is derived from the Middle English 'loupe', meaning an opening in a wall, and 'hole', from the Germanic. Historically, a loophole was one of those slits in a castle wall that would allow an archer to shoot arrows down on an enemy and remain protected from those who wanted to see what was going on behind the wall or, indeed, wished to attack it. Nowadays, of course, it has come to signify a means of escape or a tricky way out, but for a long time the word represented a slight opening in a seemingly impenetrable wall. You see, just like a French mediaeval archer, this government loves to hide behind loopholes. We see it time and time again, and we see it today with this bill.

The minister and his union buddies have all been bunkering down in their own little comrades castle, constructing their dream legislation while selectively feeding pieces of information like arrows through those loopholes, never showing too much, never exposing themselves to risk of scrutiny. I think this is a far more apt representation of what we have seen from this Labor government when it comes to industrial relations and when it comes to this bill, but, thanks to Australia's parliament, the minister has been forced to put down his drawbridge and bring his 'frankenbill' into the sunlight for the world to see, and it is ugly. If it were up to the opposition, we would put a stake right through its 'frankenheart'.

Here we are, a year on from the charade that was the Jobs and Skills Summit, and not even those who played along then would stand up for this bad Labor government now. It's getting very lonely for the government on the battlements. It's not a surprise, because this really is a bad bill. It's as simple as that. The Albanese Labor government's closing loopholes bill will make life a lot tougher for Australian businesses that are already feeling cost-of-living pressures. This bill will increase costs, increase complexity and introduce more red tape that will likely lead to job losses. According to the government's own estimates, this bill will cost employers up to $9 billion in extra wages over the next decade alone. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations said that businesses will likely be able to simply pass on these extra costs 'through higher prices for consumers or third-party businesses'. Doesn't that just sound like something that comes out of the bureaucracy?

The reality is that the changes proposed by this bill are far from 'very modest', as the employment minister described them. The employment minister does not care that the job creators of Australia are telling him that it will be harder to keep people in their jobs. Mr Burke himself has admitted that the new laws will increase costs for consumers for everyday services that they have come to rely on. This is a radical reordering of Australian workplace law which every business organisation in this country has pleaded with the government not to go ahead with.

Industrial relations reform is without a doubt one of the most important of all of the economic reforms required to make Australia more productive and competitive. The focus of any industrial relations reforms must be to make us more productive and create more jobs. Australia needs a modern workplace relations system that delivers a safety net for workers, recognises the shared interests of managers and workers in an enterprise's success and gives all enterprises the agility they need to compete and succeed. Any changes must be designed to improve productivity, grow wages and enhance competition. These are the ingredients of a successful economy. That's not what we see in this bill. These workplace relations changes will add uncertainty and complexity to the employment of millions of casuals, contractors and labour hire workers. That's not good for the economy.

There is no reason to attack existing arrangements that are working well. Business groups and employers say that the proposed IR changes will smash productivity, investment and job creation. Jennifer Westacott, chief executive of the BCA, said:

Any government that's serious about cost of living would not do this.

I believe she also said that these measures are 'unnecessary' and 'unworkable'. She also said:

They should not add cost and complexity at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills.

The government has failed to demonstrate how these new laws will make it easier for businesses to employ people, increase productivity, create a higher skilled workforce or raise living standards. In fact, this bill may even exacerbate our already dire housing crisis. Chief Executive of Master Builders Australia Denita Wawn said the government's goal of building an extra one million homes by the end of the decade 'will be significantly in jeopardy if the IR laws are passed, because of the constraints on productivity'. She also said:

… there is a real risk the radical industrial relations agenda being pursued by Minister (Tony) Burke will negatively impact these efforts.

It's like watching a lone dancer perform a different routine amidst a synchronised troupe—counterproductive and out of place.

Millions of Australians are already suffering under the crippling cost-of-living crisis of this government's own making. Why do they want to make matters worse?

These workplace relations changes will add uncertainty and complexity to the employment of millions of casuals, contractors and labour hire workers. That's not good for the economy, and it definitely doesn't support the housing and construction sectors. This bill is about eroding the choice and flexibility of individuals who want to work in their own time and on their own terms. The bill will introduce a new definition of casual employment that will replace the existing definition that was inserted in the Fair Work Act in 2021. This measure is unnecessary. The permanent-casual loophole has already been closed. All casuals have the right to convert to permanent status after 12 months if they work regular hours. The government plans to add a new right after six months in addition to the existing system allowing conversion after 12 months.

The new definition is three pages long and includes 15 factors to determine if an employee is a casual. An employee will be a casual only if they meet these factors. If not, then the business is breaking the law if they tell the employee that they are casual, even if the employee wants to be casual. Even the new conversion process is eight pages long and is separate from the existing conversion regime after 12 months. There will be two streams regulating the same thing. Employers can be exposed to involuntary arbitration by the Fair Work Commission if a worker or union disputes their decision or their interpretation of the definition. Employers would have no choice but to force workers to move to a permanent role, losing their additional income and choice of hours. The legislation will, in effect, discourage casual employment and make it too risky for many businesses to even consider.

We all want Australians to have safe, high-wage, sustainable jobs and to be rewarded for their hard work and experience. This sort of complexity and the costs associated with it will be impossible for small business to deal with. This bill will make Australians pay more in a cost-of-living crisis. It will add additional cost to businesses, especially our valuable small businesses. It will make it more expensive to build houses. It will weaken our economy. It will make a bad situation worse.

Whenever the government move legislation of this sort, they always stand at their dispatch box and they read quotes from all of the organisations and individuals who support what they are doing. This bill has no friends. These measures do not have support. Everywhere we go in the community, when we talk to business large and small and to people who work in this area, they cannot find a single good thing to say about this bill. That is actually quite surprising to me as someone who's been in this place for many years. What is even more surprising—well, perhaps not surprising—is that the minister for workplace relations has given himself extraordinary powers in this bill. He's given himself powers to make regulations. He has also given extraordinary powers to the Fair Work Commission. He's given them powers to make decisions that overturn previous concepts of common law—for example, 'employee-like'—and make them into something that they are not at this point in time.

The incredible intervention is bad enough, but, if you're someone who is subject to this bill, what it means is that you don't have any confidence, because you can't see what it will mean for you or for the people you represent or for the business you work in or for the industrial relations landscape that you need to know about because you need to provide the advice to businesses and workers. You don't know. You can't tell. You just get from the government, 'Well, it won't mean this,' or, 'It might mean that,' or, 'Wait and see,' or the dismissive laughing gestures that we so often see from members opposite—that we see all the time—with a smirk and a sneer and a jeer and a lack of deep, careful analysis. Well done to the Senate and Senator Michaelia Cash in the other place for actually putting off the detailed debate on this bill until February next year. That is so important. I think there are about 800 pages of the bill. I think there are maybe 500 pages of explanatory memorandum.

Like many in this place, I want to look at it in detail. I want to understand it. I want to hear from business and industry. I want to know what it really means. But what I do know is that, when I walk into small businesses, onto manufacturing floors and into communities across this country, they are exhausted and they are fed up. They are just beaten down with everything that they have to deal with. I know that the good members opposite know this because they are in their communities too and they hear the same things. They understand the cost-of-living crisis that their people are experiencing. With that knowledge, members opposite, please make the necessary representations to your minister. I am not sure what circles he is moving in, but this bill will be so difficult and so bad for our economy broadly and for our small businesses.

When I say small businesses, I don't mean just the business. I don't mean just the mums and dads who work tirelessly 24/7 in their own business, who don't pay themselves a wage, who work on weekends, who are struggling to get workers and who are at the point of not knowing what to do. It is a situation of such despair. I don't mean just the business; I mean the fabric of the communities in which those small businesses are. In rural and regional Australia, where I come from, those small businesses and the people who run them are the volunteers. They are the mums doing canteen duty. They are the people at school sports day. They are the communities. They are the fabric of our extraordinary, resilient and battling Australian communities.

We're not going to support reforms that will weaken our economy and continue to make a bad situation worse for Australian small businesses and families, and I urge the government to come out from its battlements, listen to the community on this issue and stop hiding behind its loopholes once and for all.

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