Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I simply remind the government that when it rushes legislation of this nature, without proper consultation, it is then humiliated into a position where it has to move these types of amendments in the Senate. I indicate that the coalition will not be opposing the first tranche of government amendments, nor the technical amendments, which is the second tranche. If I understand the third tranche of amendments correctly, I would be most interested as to why local government is being exempted. If this is all about workers' rights, if this is all about protecting people, why is it that an LNP redundancy is so bad but if a local government does exactly the same thing all of a sudden it is not bad? It is yet again an indication of the double standard that has been applied here.