Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Lambie and Senator Pocock, I congratulate you for bringing forward this set of bills, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Small Business Redundancy Exemption) Bill 2023, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Protections Against Discrimination) Bill 2023, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency) Bill 2023 and the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (First Responders) Bill 2023. You really did bell the cat, and we just heard from Senator Pratt the belling of the cat. The fact is that these bills are low-hanging fruit because I suspect it is very clear that the entire Senate supports them. We shouldn't take anyone's vote for granted, but it seems as though the entire Senate will support these bills through this chamber in a very quick fashion.

They are low-hanging fruit, but this legislation also bells the cat on the wedge the Labor Party was attempting to impose on the chamber through the omnibus IR bill. I ask those listening: what have the very important provisions to do with first responders in these bills got to do with so-called same job, same pay? Absolutely nothing. What have the very important provisions to do with silica dust in these bills, which we will pass today, got to do with casual workers? Absolutely nothing. These provisions were there to make it more difficult for this chamber to address these very important issues. They were grouped into an omnibus bill by the Labor government to make it more difficult for this chamber to deal with this legislation and put pressure on the crossbench and the opposition. That was the entire design, Senator Pratt.

The fact is, as Senator Cash so rightly pointed out, that the vast bulk of the provisions in this legislation don't even come into effect until after the normal reporting date and consideration in this chamber next year. The rest of the bill, the more controversial aspects of the bill, will in the normal course of events be considered well before the implementation date of all those measures. The only one that is scheduled to come into effect earlier concerns union workplace delegates—surprise, surprise! The Labor government through this omnibus bill is doing the bidding of the unions. That was clear on day one. The other provisions in the bill, the parts of the omnibus bill that have been split out, very sensibly by the crossbench today, deal with matters that are completely unrelated to defending the union movement: giving the union movement new power, giving the union movement new powers of entry to workplaces in this country, giving the union movement new access via chain agreements to training levies and health and safety levies.

I mean, the reality of what the government was doing here was very transparent. I congratulate the crossbench for seeing through what the government was doing and I congratulate them for taking these non-controversial parts of the omnibus bill— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.

Bills read a second time.