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

Hearing some of those arguments, I wonder whether someone has had a Russian cyberattack to the head. There were some extraordinary, extraordinary arguments. Let's not forget, all we are doing right now is saying we got a message from the Senate and we will consider it straightaway. Now, in the last 20 years that I have been here, that is basically what this House does when we get a message from the Senate. To describe that as a gag basically says every message from the Senate in at least the last 20 years, possibly since Federation, has been gagged. These are really out-there arguments.

The Manager of Opposition Business claimed as well that he has only had two hours to consider these amendments. They were all on the floor of the Senate last Thursday. Over the whole weekend, did he and Senator Cash decide to disconnect? Did they decide that what was said in the Senate would be kept a secret, that he wasn't to be told that it was secret Senate business and that no-one would tell the Manager of Opposition Business what amendments had been carried there?

The message that has been received by the House is the summation of everything that publicly happened in the Senate—no more, no less. If that was kept secret from the Manager of Opposition Business, I don't know how they communicate with each other. Maybe they will send more messages to each other on the ABC at 8 pm tonight. Maybe that will be the opportunity to communicate. But to claim that they have only just had two hours to scrutinise absolutely defies belief.

When this bill was introduced, I said there were three things that happen when people don't want to engage in the actual argument: they complain about the consultation, they talk about the bill, claiming it's something that it's not, and they ask for a delay. The whole way through, we had all three. In the speeches that we just heard, we also had all three. Asking for a delay, he said that we were wanting to debate it the next day. That was because they had declared their position on it before I introduced it. It's just like the tax cuts. They announced they were opposed to them before they had seen them. It's the exact same scenario. We made sure it had had time to go to their party room. What did they decide in their party room? Surprise, surprise, they were opposed to any legislation that would help with job security or getting wages moving—completely as we knew.

It was listed for debate. What did they do then? First of all, they voted for a six-week delay. The next day they came back in and decided a six-week delay wasn't enough and they wanted to delay it from September to February. Then, in the Senate, they shifted the Senate inquiry from November to February. A few weeks later they voted in the Senate. Instead of it being that it had to be by 1 February, they were then voting for no sooner than 1 February. We actually had the longest Senate inquiry we have ever had into an industrial relations bill on this legislation, and yet they want to complain about consultation. They want to claim that this is somehow a bill that has an impact on Russian cyberattacks. We all have to avoid conflicts of interest. I'm not sure why the Manager of Opposition Business keeps wanting to talk about the impact on Optus. I would weigh that one up carefully as an example that you constantly reach for.

You are asking for a further delay. I know there will be a debate when we deal with the amendments themselves. From the crossbench, there will be different issues that have come up in the Senate that crossbenchers will have strong views on, and there'll be a debate about the policy. But to have a debate now about whether we can deal with this issue at all—people have been waiting too long. Casuals have been waiting too long already to get the right to be able to get permanent employment if that's what they want. Gig workers have been waiting a decade to be able to get a minimum standard. Road transport industry workers have been advocating for more than 20 years to be able to get minimum standards. Workers, as they've gradually gone to having their own mobile phones over the last decades, have now waited too long just to know they don't have to constantly be on call. People have been waiting years and years for this moment. It's time for people to get those rights and to get those rights today.

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