Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, , 3:53:38 to 3:58:12
Questioning regarding the department's advice to the Minister on the timing and introduction of the Building Cooperative Workplaces Bill.
Topics: Integrity, Law reform
Speakers: Greg Manning, Senator Jane Hume, Simon Duggan, Unknown Speaker
So Senator, we I think uh you and I had an exchange the following morning where we did. I made it very clear that the department answered all the questions that came to us openly, honestly, as we always do.
I think in addition to that, I mean public service operates under you know uh endorse policies in, for example, in the development of legislation that make it very clear it's not for public servants to announce the timing and content of legislation. That's a long-standing practice of successive governments. That's for these are matters for the government to do. The legislation handbook is is quite uh explicit in relation to that, for example. So not only was it not the subject of questioning, but there's, as I say, long-standing uh policies of successive governments about governments choosing when to announce the timing of legs when to announce legislation both its content and its timing.
Do you make recommendations to the minister about when to announce legislation, contents and timing? So you just leave that bit blank on the briefs to Minister.
We would get involved in if if a gut we're speaking hypothetically now.
Um, I mean when you give a brief to a minister about a particular policy, if you've got legislation that's 100% ready to go, do you just leave that bit blank and say introduce when you like, or do you say we suggest that you introduce in this week so that we can get this done, get the consultation underway and so Minister,
our we will give implementation advice to the extent that implementation of government policy requires legislation? We'll be very clear in that advice on the time when that timing of that legislation needs to occur. For the policy to be in effect at the time frame that the government government determines. It's then a matter of government business about when they schedule precise week within a sitting period, precise day in which legislation is released. That's really a matter for the Minister.
Did you give advice on the building cooperative workplaces bill about the timing of introduction?
Again, Senator, certainly we would have we would have complied with the legislative approval process by the legislative approval briefing uh in in the week in which something's going to occur. But that's separate from saying that it normally goes to when we're able to get the work done by as compared to the type of issues Mr. Duggan just covered off in his evidence.
So I'm sorry. The question that I asked was did you give advice on the timing of the impl of the introduction of the building cooperative workplaces bill?
From what from what perspective, just in terms of uh for what perspective, Senator, I'd ask you to clarify the question.
So I don't know how much clearer it can be. Did the department give the minister advice on the timing of the introduction of the building cooperative workplace?
We should have we certainly would have worked with uh either the minister or the minister's office, I think, more about when we'd be able to get work done by, for example, um, which we're always in conversations in in relation to timing from the perspective of our ability to deliver something, but we don't normally proffer views about um, for example, the go to political matters, for example. We're not we're not giving timing on those types of considerability advice, sorry, on those types of considerations.
Okay, I'm just gonna try one more time. With the building cooperative workplaces bill, did the department give the minister advice on when it should be introduced? And did the minister accept that advice or do something different?
I I'm gonna pick up on the word should. I I'm gonna take it on notice, as I said, we would have we would have followed through all the procedures in the legislative approval process, and some of those go to timing. Um I'm not sure should is the word, but it's probably when as I say, we'd normally try to meet deadlines that we've been asked to meet in relation to the introduction of things rather than advocate. We might advocate a view, for example, to say it requires an appointment. I'm talking hypothetically, therefore you need to do it by this in order to get it done by that. We're giving that advice about logistics and operational matters. Uh um, but uh it's normally advice is a limited to those matters. But I'll I'll take on notice and give you an answer that question and the dates of any of that advice.
Thank you. Any advice that you gave to this minister around the introduction, the date of introduction of the building cooperative workplaces bill, and whether the minister agreed with that advice or advised you otherwise of her preference. All right, I have some questions about the recently announced non-compete reforms. Oh, sorry, yeah.