Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Technology and the Future of Work) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations. Yesterday the minister confirmed he would not be a party to legal action involving printing company Ovato, which is denying 300 workers' redundancy payments. This will leave them with no income over Christmas while they wait for their Fair Entitlements Guarantee applications to be processed. Why does the minister only intervene in matters that support cutting workers' pay and conditions, and why won't he intervene to help these 300 workers who face a Christmas with no income?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To be fair, it's just not correct that we intervene or not intervene on the basis that you've noted. It's also the case—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left!

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

that I confirmed the Commonwealth government was not intervening in that, publicly, some time ago—not yesterday in the chamber. I do that cautiously after receiving advice, often very extensive advice, on each matter on a case-by-case basis. But we do not intervene in each and every case, and I can assure you that it's certainly not the case that we make our decision to intervene on that pejorative criteria that you raise. We just don't do that.