Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, , 4:08:35 to 4:10:32
Inquiry into the decision to extend non-solicitation bans to employees earning above the high-income threshold and the analysis supporting this policy change.
Topics: Workplace relations, Law reform
Speakers: Senator Jane Hume, Speaker 25, Greg Manning
Okay, terrific, thank you. So the non-compete reforms were announced originally in 2025. Correct me if I'm wrong, these I'm getting nods good, thank you. Yes. Uh the original announcement covered non-compete clauses for workers under uh the high income threshold, and they promised to only um consider and consult further on non-solicitation. The exposure draft bans co-worker non-solicitation terms for every employee uh at every income level. So when was that decision taken and and who who took it? Was that you guys or was that Treasury, or was that I should say, was that the um uh your minister or was it the treasurer?
Um I might need to take the specifics of that question on notice. What I would uh confirm is that the commitment did foreshadow consideration of the co-work and non-solicitation clause, um, and that was subject subject to consultation over the course of the um development of these reforms, so it wasn't new to stakeholders. Uh while it didn't form part of the original election commitment, it was subject to significant policy development during the course of consultation.
Okay. So is there some analysis then that supports extending the ban to employees earning above 190,000 100?
Um I might need to take that on notice. My apologies, Senator. I'm relatively new to this piece of work. We've had some changes within the group following on from the developer. Of the Fair Work Court Task Force. We might need to take on notice the details of the policy development of this particular piece of work.
If there is some analysis that supports extending that ban to high incomes, can I ask that it be tabled?
Yes, uh yes, and we'll and we'll uh picking up on the there's a consultation process if there were particular submissions that drew on that we'll refer you to them as well in our response and thank you.