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

by leave—I move opposition amendments (1) to (3) and (8) to Senate amendments (1), (2) and (52), circulated in my name, together:

(1) Senate amendment (1) (proposed new table items 2, 6A, 17 and 21 in subclause 2(1) of the Bill), omit the table items.

(2) Senate amendment (2) (proposed new Divisions 2 and 5 of Part 16 of the Fair Work Act 2009), omit the Divisions.

(3) Senate amendment (2) (proposed new Part 17 of the Fair Work Act 2009), omit the Part.

(8) Senate amendment (52), omit the amendment.

I will explain to the House what these amendments do. Their combined impact, if the amendments are passed, will be to remove a series of objectionable provisions in the bill, particularly the bill as amended by the Senate. The first effect would be to remove the lengthy, multipage, 15-plus factor provisions dealing with casual employment, which have done a remarkable job of casting darkness and confusion where before there was light and clarity after several High Court decisions that made the law very clear. The opposition's amendments, if passed, would allow the certainty which the High Court has established to continue to prevail.

They would remove the intractable bargaining provisions, which are another set of provisions which essentially wholly undermine the operation of enterprise bargaining, and for that reason the opposition believes those provisions should be removed.

They would remove the union demerger provisions. This is very interesting. The CFMEU comprises a roll-up of several individual unions that came together, and it turns out that at least one of those formerly independent unions that have joined up with the CFMEU have found that they have some rather unsavoury bedfellows. They find themselves somewhat uncomfortable at being aligned with an organisation that regard having been convicted of criminal charges to be a badge of honour for their officials. They are also great believers in the use of the baseball bat as a tool to encourage negotiation. The simple fact is that the coalition, when in government, introduced provisions which stood in the law and which were supported.

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