Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wentworth for her amendment, but the government will be opposing this amendment, which seeks to siphon out our reforms to reinvigorate enterprise bargaining. These reforms will allow Commonwealth government spending to support secure jobs and fair working conditions through the ability to preference enterprise agreements negotiated in good faith and genuinely agreed, where appropriate, to do so. Enterprise agreements are a transparent and effective way of delivering secure jobs and fair conditions for workers as well as flexibility and productivity for employers.

Importantly, I would make clear that the bill does not impose any obligations on the Commonwealth to do anything. How the Commonwealth government does its spending should support secure jobs and fair working conditions, and how this will be done is being carefully considered as part of the development of the secure Australian jobs code. Value for money and quality, timely delivery will remain front and centre of all government spending decisions.

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