Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Without going to the actual wording of the Greens amendment, I want to deal with the issue of principle that is before us. I think that Senator Siewert is right about the issues of due process. As a legal practitioner herself, the minister would know that a basic in law is that a decision of any authority making a judgement on an agreement should be capable of review. The normal process would be to go to a tribunal such as the industrial relations tribunal or the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. I have a question of the minister. I can understand your attitude in the transitional period. I think it is difficult. There are many messy aspects and nothing is to everyone’s satisfaction, but the government is of course constructing a new regime. My question to the minister is this: is it the intention of the government to take up the principle that Senator Siewert has outlined in its new regime that industrial instruments, whether they be collective or individual agreements, be capable of review and due process if they are subject to a decision by an authority other than the parties to the agreement? Of course, in law, if no third party is involved and there is a dispute, the parties to the agreement can take it to the courts. But in these cases a third party is involved in deciding whether or not an agreement stands, and that agreement process should, under the normal principles of natural justice, be capable of review. So, Minister, are you going to deal with it in your substantive bill?