16th May 2013, 1:29 PM – Representatives Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Towards Transparency) Bill 2013 - Second Reading - Read a second time

The majority voted against a motion to read the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Towards Transparency) Bill 2013 a second time.(The text of the bill can be found here. )

This means that the majority of members rejected the main idea of the bill.

Someone who voted Aye supported the main idea of the bill. The majority voted No, so the bill will not be considered any further in Parliament.

Debate in Parliament

The bill was introduced by Liberal MP Tony Abbott, leader of the Opposition, to strengthen “the requirements upon union officials to act honestly and in good faith”.(See Abbott MP's discussion of the bill here. ) He argued that this was important due to recent scandals and investigations into possible improper conduct. The purpose of this bill was “to put exactly the same regime, as far as we can, in place for unions and those running unions as applies to companies and those running companies”.

Labor Party MP Michelle Rowland said that the Government supported “appropriate regulation” of unions, which is why it previously amended the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009. In rejecting this bill, she argued that “trade unions are not corporations”.(See Rowland MP's contribution here. ) The Labor Party MP Mike Symon agreed, saying that treating unions like corporations is “a plainly ridiculous concept”.(See Symon MP's contribution here.)

References