Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Pursuant to order, I present the report of the Education and Employment References Committee on the provisions of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2013 together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I move:

That the report be adopted.

Further to that, I would like to make some comments as the chair of the references committee. I have to say that the government really has no friends with this bill—no friends at all. We heard from a range of submitters from both business organisations and trade unions and we heard from very reputable and highly regarded business organisations such as the Australian Industry Group, the Motor Vehicle Traders' Association, the South Australian Wine Industry, to name a few.

We heard from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the ACTU. We heard from the Maritime Union of Australia. We heard from the Queensland Nurses Association. We heard from the United Services Union and a range of other unions. All of those groups, surprising as it may seem, are absolutely on a unity ticket about how unnecessary this registered organisations bill is.

I want to put on the record: it is not because those registered organisations, be they businesses or trade unions, do not want to be accountable and transparent; they clearly do. They absolutely want to be transparent and accountable. They believe under the amendments that Labor brought in in the last government that they are already now being much more accountable and being held to a much higher standard.

Most of the submitters said that those regulations are still working their way through the system and indeed have not been fully tested, have not been fully implemented, but all of them commented that the amount of paperwork, the red tape, that we hear from the government has increased substantially. They do not walk away from the fact they need to be open and accountable with members' money, whether it is a business member or a trade union. They do not walk away from that at all, but they see the requirements that this government, through Prime Minister Abbott and Minister Abetz, wants to put on them to be much too onerous. As I said, we heard that from every single submitter. The government has no friends, and here we have business and trade unions on an absolute unity ticket in their wholehearted rejection of this bill. The committee could not have reported any other way than to reject the bill in our recommendation.

If we look at the terms of reference of the references committee, we looked at the potential impact of the amendments. I would refer senators in this chamber who are interested to have a look at the submission of the Australian Industry Group. They have really put a lot of effort into it; it is a very good submission. It goes through all of the issues and explains in very simple terms the onerous nature of the proposed bill—and indeed the Australian Council of Trade Unions likewise. Both of those organisations produced very substantial arguments as to why this new registered organisations bill is completely unnecessary.

Anther area we were to look at as a reference committee was the potential of the amendments to impede the ability of employees of registered organisations to carry out their duties. What we heard from the AiG and from trade unions is that their committees of management are largely made up of volunteers—volunteers who give their time in a voluntary capacity, obviously, to serve as executive and ordinary members of registered organisations. It is fair to say that they will get a small stipend that covers off perhaps their meal money and mileage, if they are using their car or travel allowance, but they are not paid officials. All of the organisations reported that the majority of their committees of management were voluntary organisations. One of the things the government was quick to point out in the new bill and what came out in evidence is that this bill treats registered organisations like shareholders. All of the registered organisations which gave evidence to us really took issue with that. We know that corporations return profits to shareholders. That is what they do. There is an obligation for those corporations to return as big a profit as they can to shareholders. That is clearly not the role of registered organisations; it is not their role at all. They have constitutions and they have objects, which set out very clearly what they are seeking to do. None of them have objects which are about making profits and returning them to corporations. It is a completely different set of businesses and trade unions, and it just seems to be lost on the government. Indeed, the department led in evidence that one of the intentions of the bill was, in fact, to seek to regulate registered organisations in the same way that corporations are registered. Yet their outcomes and what they are set up to achieve are poles apart. They could not be any further apart.

We heard from the South Australian Wine Industry Association that there was no rationale. They did not think there was any rationale at all for making changes and introducing a new bill covering registered organisations. I quote from the South Australian Wine Industry Association, which acknowledge:

… that review and reform of the law governing registered organisations is both necessary and justified from time to time …

As I said in my opening remarks, there was not a submitter we heard evidence from who did not state the importance of being open, transparent and accountable. The South Australian Wine Industry Association went on to say:

However the unlawful conduct of some officers within one registered organisation does not justify imposing excessive compliance and disproportionate monetary penalties on all registered organisations in a manner contemplated by some of the provisions in—

this amending bill—

the Fair Work (Registered Organisations)Amendment Bill 2013.

So here we have the South Australian Wine Industry Association saying that the penalties and the response in this bill are over the top. Just because one organisation does not do the right thing—clearly they did not; there is no resiling from that—that is not a signal for government to then hammer down on all other registered organisations.

All of the submitters made comments around the increased penalties. Again, the Ai Group, the ACTU, the MUA and the South Australian Wine Industry Association all criticised the proposed increased penalties. What they were at pains to point out is that that will limit our volunteers' ability to put themselves forward as an officer. They become aware of the potential penalties if some mistake is made. So all of those organisations will say, 'We will be less rich because we simply will not have the encouragement of our members to come on board to take on executive positions.'

That is clearly an outcome of this bill; it will restrict volunteers. I am sure that is the last thing that any of us in this chamber want to see happen, but it is clearly the view of all of the submitters. They said that those increased penalties will really make volunteers think, 'Is this really where I want to put my time?' Again, we look at the difference between a voluntary organisation and a shareholder organisation. The Australian Industry Group, in particular, said:

If the proposed criminal penalties and proposed massive financial penalties for breaches of duties are included in the RO Act—

that is, the registered organisations act—

this would operate as a major disincentive to existing voluntary officers of registered organisations continuing in their roles …

Again, that is from the Australian Industry Group. There is a breach of human rights in the proposed bill and it has been looked at by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. They have written to the minister. I am not aware as to whether they have got a response at this point, but there are concerns about that.

As I said in my opening remarks, the committee had no other option than to side with all of our submitters and reject the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2013 out of hand.