28th Nov 2019, 10:23 AM – Senate Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the main idea of the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a second time. This means that they can now discuss it in greater detail.

What is the bill's main idea?

The bill was introduced in order to:

• include certain serious criminal offences as a new category of ‘prescribed offence’ for the purposes of the automatic disqualification regime in relation to registered organisations;
• establish an offence for a disqualified person to continue to act as an official or in a way that influences the affairs of an organisation;
• allow the Federal Court to disqualify officials from holding office in certain circumstances or if they are otherwise not a fit and proper person;
• allow the Federal Court to cancel the registration of an organisation on a range of grounds;
• expand the grounds on which the Federal Court may order remedial action to deal with governance issues in an organisation;
• expressly provide that the Federal Court may appoint an administrator to an organisation or part of an organisation as part of a remedial scheme;
• introduce a public interest test for amalgamations of registered organisations; and
• make minor and technical amendments.