Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, , 7:34:35 to 7:37:30
Senators question the government's transparency regarding the introduction of the Building Cooperative Workplaces Bill and the timing of legislative announcements.
Topics: Workplace relations, Integrity
Speakers: Senator Jane Hume, Senator Jess Walsh, Senator Maria Kovacic
Thank you, Chair.
Sorry. One more line of questions. We spoke earlier about the building um cooperative workplaces bill and how that was introduced the day after Senate estimates rose, and we we um had didn't get a chance to speak to the Fair Work Commission about that bill and how it would affect your work. Uh there was an element of that bill that we've spoken about additionally today, Section 9, uh, which integrity experts have specifically said opens the door to corruption and has done when it's been replicated in state legislation. Um this is why we need an opportunity to scrutinize this legislation. This is why we reject it when the government says we're being as transparent as we can be, and we want to see uh corruption in construction um eliminated, and we're doing more than any other government could do. Minister, can you please give some assurance that there will be no sneaky or underhand action of government to try and slip legislation through without appropriate scrutiny, particularly in this um in this industry uh of corruption of construction where there is where corruption is clearly rife?
Senator and um you know I I will save you and Senator Kabasik in in particular from going through sort of everything that the government is doing to attempt to do the really important work of driving a safe and clean union and a safe and clean uh industry. Um that is what we are about, not about the words in your question.
You said that you were the most you were the most transparent government, I think were the words that you had used. Is transparency? Do you think that slipping through a piece of legislation announcing it in a media release five minutes after the Fair Work Commission had left the building? Do you think that that is a demonstration of your government's commitment to transparency?
Um Senator, I think that the legislation was introduced uh in the usual way. Um the introduction of legislation um uh is a matter for um the government business program uh in the parliament. It's managed by the managers of uh government business uh and um the way in which uh legislation passes through the parliament is a matter for the parliament.
Is your government committed to transparency?
Of course, Senator.