George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Whether you like the decision or whether you do not, Senator Urquhart, if you are going to respect the industrial relations system, and if you are going to respect the rule of law, you ought to respect the decisions of an independent umpire.

You asked me what the government is doing in relation to the matter. You touch upon the issue which Senator Cameron raised. The government last Friday made a submission to the Fair Work Commission on transitional arrangements. I do not know if you were listening when I answered Senator Cameron's question, but one of the things that the government submitted to the Fair Work Commission in dealing with the transitional arrangements—in other words, the arrangements to give effect to the implementation stage of its determination—was to ask the commission to take into consideration the potential economic impact and effects on employees and to take into effect the importance of mitigating any hardship that might be experienced. As well, the government asked the Fair Work Commission to ensure that transitional arrangements were made as simple as possible so that they could be executed in a way that was understandable to the employees. The transitional— (Time expired)