Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I might start with a broader answer around how we've approached the range of workplace relation changes we've made in relation to small business. We have always acknowledged, in each piece of legislation that we've passed since being elected in 2022, that in some cases small businesses need further time to adjust to changes than what we expect of big businesses. For example, just this week we're celebrating the one-year anniversary of the right to disconnect. That has only just come in, as of this week, for small businesses. It came in for big businesses 12 months ago. There are other changes that we've made, which I've forgotten for the moment, which applied to big business in the first instance, and 12 months was given to small businesses before the requirements came in for them. That would be an example of how we have attempted to consider the different needs of small businesses when making some of these changes.

On this bill, there's a fundamental point to be made, which is that this bill is not altering existing conditions. It's not imposing new obligations. I've heard Senator Kovacic and other coalition senators talk about new obligations and onerous burdens. What it's doing is preserving existing conditions rather than allowing them to be cut. This bill does not alter existing employer obligations, including those of small business. It does not introduce new costs or impose additional requirements on small business. Modern awards or industry or occupation based instruments provide a safety net of minimum terms and conditions for Australia's lowest-paid employees, and we think that every Australian employee deserves the same minimum protections in modern awards regardless of whether they're employed in a big business or a small business. It's not about requiring small businesses to do something new; it would be about businesses, large or small, reducing and cutting the existing conditions that apply under modern awards. All they need to do is keep doing what they're doing, rather than doing something new.