Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That—

(a) the Senate notes, with concern, the recent and growing job losses in state governments around Australia, as well as the difficulties many state public sector employees face in bargaining over wages and conditions; and

(b) the following matter be referred to the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee for inquiry and report by 17 June 2013:

The conditions of employment of state public sector employees and the adequacy of protection of their rights at work as compared with other employees, including:

(i) whether:

  (A) the current state government industrial relations legislation provides state public sector workers with less protection and entitlements than workers to whom the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act) applies,

  (B) the removal of components of the long held principles relating to termination, change and redundancy from state legislation is a breach of obligations under the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions ratified by Australia,

  (C) the rendering unenforceable of elements of existing collective agreements relating to employment security is a breach of the obligations under the ILO conventions ratified by Australia relating to collective bargaining,

  (D) the current state government industrial relations frameworks provide protection to workers as required under the ILO conventions ratified by Australia,

  (E) state public sector workers face particular difficulties in bargaining under state or federal legislation, and

  (F) the Act provides the same protections to state public sector workers as it does to other workers to the extent possible, within the scope of the Commonwealth's legislative powers; and

(ii) noting the scope of states' referrals of power to support the Act, what legislative or regulatory options are available to the Commonwealth to ensure that all Australian workers, including those in state public sectors, have adequate and equal protection of their rights at work.

Question agreed to.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition finds this motion extraordinary on a number of accounts. Not all states have opted to refer their industrial relations arrangements to the Commonwealth, and for some states there was only a partial referral. In Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia, public sector employees are not covered by the Fair Work Act because successive Labor governments did not refer powers to the Commonwealth in respect of public sector employees and local government employees. Clearly, if federal Labor were to support this motion, it would be casting a vote of no confidence in former state Labor governments of New South Wales and Queensland. The then Labor state governments made the decision not to refer powers for public sector employees in those states, and therefore the issues raised in this reference are matters for state governments. The coalition will not support this reference, which seeks to undermine the principles of federalism.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion by Senator Waters be agreed to.