Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

This is the whole point which employers have raised with me. What was the rationale behind including the section, given what you have just said, other than the government effectively telling Australians that to get what you want in the workplace, all you need to do is threaten industrial action, and that is the whole point? What is the rationale behind adding or inserting section 2AA?

Why the difference between what unions do and what employers do? I don't see any need for this particular section other than you do want to make it clear that anything done by an employee or their union in undertaking the application of section 186(2)(b), the Fair Work Commission does not need to take into consideration, unless it is one of the employers who bargained for the agreement. You have confirmed, therefore, that proposing or threatening to take industrial action that would financially cripple a small or family business or a smaller business to force them to sign the agreement is actually not coercion and therefore allowed.