Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have had a look at this amendment and am inclined to support the opposition’s position on this because the government has realised there is a problem. Quite clearly, if there was not a problem, the Deputy Prime Minister would not have written to the Industrial Relations Commission in the way she did. The problem that the government has now is they have singled out one industry by saying that it is special. Where do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line with the next industry that comes along and says, ‘Hey, we are special’?

This is the dilemma that you have. The problem that I have is that the Deputy Prime Minister has written to the Industrial Relations Commission on 29 May, a copy of which I have. It is a fairly detailed letter and it quite clearly has raised a legitimate concern in the area of restaurants and caterers, but where do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line to say that they are special and another group is not? This is the problem or dilemma that you are going to have, so I think that what the opposition has put forward here has got some merit. Unless you folks can come up with a better argument than what I have seen publicly, I think it really does deserve support. What about the industries that have the same problems or similar issues? Where do you draw the line? I have trouble not supporting the opposition’s amendment. I think it is a reasonable submission, a reasonable amendment, and I am inclined to support it.