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

The government oppose this amendment, as previously indicated. The law provides that redundancy provisions are allowable, but if the parties do not want to have them as part of their agreement then we believe that is appropriate for them to consider.

If it were something that were to be considered as an absolute, then of course you would not be giving exemption to small businesses that employ fewer than 15. So there is already an undermining of the assertion that this is an absolute fundamental, because I think we are all agreed—other than the Greens—that small businesses that employ fewer than 15 should be exempted. We also have the situation where there may be project-specific employment and also casual workers for whom it may be inappropriate, and that is why we say that these matters should be allowed to be dealt with in the marketplace on the basis of what is best suited to the needs of the workers and the employers. As a result, we as a government oppose the amendments.