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representatives vote 2022-11-10#7
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2022-11-16 18:22:22
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Title
Bills — Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022; Consideration in Detail- Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 - Consideration in Detail - Multi-party bargains
Description
<p class="speaker">Dai Le</p><p>by leave—I move:</p>-
- The majority voted in favour of *disagreeing* with [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2022-11-10.34.1) introduced by Wentworth MP [Allegra Spender](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/wentworth/allegra_spender) (Independent), which means they failed.
- ### What were the amendments?
- Ms Spender [explained that](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2022-11-10.34.1):
- > *My amendments ... will make this bill more workable for businesses, particularly small businesses, who have had an incredibly tough time in recent years. It will make it more workable for workers, who desperately need a pay rise to cope with the rising cost of living.*
- >
- > *Many of the concerns of this bill can be undone with one simple amendment: let businesses consent to multi-party bargains in the single interest stream.*
<p class="italic">(1) Clause 2, page 5 (table item 32), omit "Part 25", substitute "Parts 25 and 25AA".</p><p class="italic">(2) Schedule 1, page 228 (after line 26), after Part 25, insert:</p><p class="italic">Part 25AA — Having regard to certain additional matters in performing functions</p><p class="italic"> <i>Fair Work Act 2009</i></p><p class="italic">659AA Section 577</p><p class="italic">Before "The FWC", insert "(1)".</p><p class="italic">659AB At the end of section 577</p><p class="italic">Add:</p><p class="italic">(2) In performing its functions under paragraph 576(2)(b), the FWC must have regard to:</p><p class="italic">(a) the need for guidelines and other materials to be available in multiple languages; and</p><p class="italic">(b) the need for community outreach in multiple languages.</p><p class="italic">659AC After subsection 682(1)</p><p class="italic">Insert:</p><p class="italic">(1A) In performing functions under paragraph (1)(a), the Fair Work Ombudsman must have regard to:</p><p class="italic">(a) the need for guidelines and other materials to be available in multiple languages; and</p><p class="italic">(b) the need for community outreach in multiple languages.</p><p>It's great that we're seeing a debate about the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 here in the House. As a first-term MP, it's great to see that the debate is robust and that it's done in a safe and respectful manner in the 47th Parliament—so far!</p><p>Let me be clear: I'm not opposed to wage increases for hardworking Australians. As a matter of fact, many in my electorate of Fowler who work in child care, teaching, nursing and low-paid jobs will benefit tremendously. They need this, as we're facing a cost-of-living crisis. However, any wage increase must be done fairly, equitably and in a way that does not have unintended consequences for lower-socioeconomic communities and for multicultural communities that are built on small, family-run business. In my Fowler electorate, there are currently over 18,000 trading small businesses, with the majority owned and managed by migrants and refugees. In fact, one in three small businesses are run by migrants and refugees, who are the most entrepreneurial of all small business owners and who are most likely to start their own business.</p><p>What plans are in place to communicate the IR changes and reforms to the non-English-speaking communities? My amendments seek to ensure that the Fair Work Commission takes into consideration the need to provide guidelines and community outreach programs in other languages, to support our culturally diverse communities in order to run their businesses. Are we going to have to face another situation like the Western Sydney COVID lockdowns, when no-one in Fowler was given access to information in the appropriate language until it was too late?</p><p>Let me remind the House again that my electorate of Fowler has one of the lowest median income rates in the country. The median wage of people in my electorate is 20 per cent less than the national average. When it comes to reforms like this one, we have often been ignored, neglected and forgotten. If we are to be a truly inclusive and diverse society, we need to ensure that reforms like this are meaningful to the 52 per cent of my electorate who are born overseas.</p><p>I cannot stand by while my diverse and multicultural community is ignored yet again. We must create a pathway that clears confusion and prevents language barriers from misleading people on any political reforms. I don't need to remind the people in this House that small business is the backbone of the Australian economy.</p><p>My community was built on the shoulders of migrants and refugees who came to this country seeking better opportunities for themselves and their families. We have more than 130 nationalities, with many of these people running some type of business—from a banh mi bakery to a pho noodle restaurant or a pearl milk tea store. They're hardworking small-business owners. However, as it currently stands, small business is defined as having 15 employees—including casuals—under the Fair Work Act. That means if my local Vietnamese pho restaurant employs 16 people, they could be forced to enter multi-employer bargaining situations when they lack the time, resources and funds to do so.</p><p>We should resolve this issue by amending the definition of a 'small business'. Instead of capping the total at 15 people, I would propose that any business that employs less than 20 full-time employees is a small business. But first and foremost, we must address the issue of interpretation, language translation and community outreach within diverse communities. It's true that Australia is one, and it is many. We are a country of many people, many languages and many backgrounds. Acknowledging this is critical to any further discussions on the bill.</p><p>I, like many of my crossbench colleagues, have raised that a bill this complex requires more consultation, more time and more collaboration. Once again, while I acknowledge the government wants to keep its election promise to deliver wage increases by the end of the year—there's about six weeks to go—then they should push the most agreeable part of the bill through first and give us the opportunity to consult with our local businesses in respect of the multi-employer bargaining section of the bill. I think that's only fair. We are, after all, a fair, democratic country. Thank you.</p> <p class="speaker">Tony Burke</p><p>I thank the member for Fowler for the amendment. In particular, I thank the member for Fowler for confining the amendment itself to the issues about community languages. I respect, in the speech that was given, there are other issues the member for Fowler's deeply concerned about, including the small-business exemption and how that's defined, but I do appreciate the amendment has been put in a form that allows the government to be able to support it.</p><p>At the moment, the Fair Work Ombudsman have about 30 languages where they are doing this. The Fair Work Commission operates more through an interpreter service as to how they deal with community languages at the moment. But as we both know, because our communities are not that different, and I'm pleased the member for Fowler referred to the lockdown period of the pandemic, there was a period where information was not being provided in community languages when it needed to be. So this puts into the Fair Work Act a requirement as to what's expected, and the government's very happy to back that. The government thanks the member for Fowler for bringing it forward.</p> <p class="speaker">Paul Fletcher</p><p>The opposition will be pleased to support the amendment moved by the member for Fowler, which is based upon her strong representation of her electorate and her own lived experience. It's an important amendment, and I rather suspect that, had circumstances been different and had the member for Fowler been somebody who'd been parachuted in from the leafy Northern Beaches—from Scotland Island, in fact—this useful contribution might not have been made.</p><p>Question agreed to.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
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