Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

The assertions that are being made by the minister are just not true. The bottom line here is that we were very concerned that this would open up a whole range of attacks on workers' representatives and the right of unions to carry out their responsibilities, the same way as the ABCC continually interfered in relation to the legitimate operation of the trade union movement. This is a government that can't be trusted when it comes to workers' rights. It just cannot be trusted. Even when we did, in this place, move legislation in relation to the ABCC, the former minister, Minister Abetz, and the then Prime Minister, Prime Minister Abbott, directed the ABCC not to deal with any issue that went to workers being ripped off. Their whole focus was to attack the trade union movement. This bill, if it goes down the way the minister wants, will be another Trojan Horse to diminish the capacity of the trade union movement to service its members effectively.

We believe the amendments that have been moved, the areas that are covered, deal with the issues that the minister has outlined. All you have to do is go to sheet 8218 to see that 712AA(1)(a)(vii) goes to a contravention of a provision of the National Employment Standards. It goes to the issue that the minister was concerned about, and that was coercion. But what it does ensure is that we can't have another situation like we had under the ABCC, when this place passed legislation and the Prime Minister and the minister then directed an agency not to deal with what we had determined it should be, which was to look after workers' rights as well. This government has form when it comes to these issues.

We are convinced that the discussions we've had with Senator Xenophon, the agreement we have with Senator Xenophon, meets the concerns that the minister had—the genuine concerns, not the rubbish that's been put up to try and muddy the waters on this. It actually goes to the issue of what this bill was supposed to be about. This bill was supposed to be about protecting vulnerable workers, not giving some powers to the Fair Work Ombudsman to attack workers' right to be properly represented by their union.