Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

Briefly, the government, as Senator Fielding has indicated, support the amendments. We do not support the next amendment, but we will deal with that during the discussion on that one. I note, in relation to these particular amendments, that they would mean in the Tristar context that an employer would have to deliberately employ somebody for two years to avoid the redundancy provisions.

I must say that, in this day and age, and I may well be wrong on this, I am not sure that redundancy provisions are being made which go for more than 104 weeks. As a result, I would think that this proposal really does cover the field and provides the security for those workers who see their redundancy provisions as being important. We believed in our first legislation that 12 months would be enough. But, as we have always said, we are willing to learn from experience and see what needs to be done to further enhance workers’ protections. This is a reasonable and balanced approach, and that is why we as a government are willing to support these Family First amendments.

Question agreed to.