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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2423 ..

employer organisations registered under the Commonwealth’s Workplace Relations Act, and so recognises those employees and employers who have a stake in making workplaces safe.

I am not sure how extensively employer organisations will take up this opportunity to actively involve themselves in the workplace safety of their members. I believe there is a case for employer organisations to take on a workplace safety role in the interest of business development. It also establishes a much stricter framework with regard to authorising representatives, including a training requirement, and a series of offences that registered organisations can commit if they fail to manage the authorisation process appropriately. This amendment, then, is also about governance. I am not sure if the detail of these amendments reflects the pressure of industry and the crossbench, or simply reflect the fact that, when the bill was introduced, it was a work in progress. I will be supporting this amendment.

Ms Dundas’s amendments echo arrangements in New South Wales that allow for representatives to be delisted if their behaviour or activities warrant it. While there has been only one example of an authorised representative being delisted in New South Wales over the past three years, it is clearly very important to have such provisions in legislation. I think we are seeing here, through the government’s amendment and through these amendments, a shift away from simply giving fairly loose and broad ranging power to unions to a more specific engagement of union and employer association officials in a fairly formal workplace safety partnership with WorkCover.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Children, Youth and Family Support, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (12.14), The government supports the amendments. They insert a disqualification regime for authorised representatives and they ensure greater accountability of registered organisations in relation to the right of entry scheme. As previous speakers have said, similar provisions are contained in the Federal Workplace Relations Act, the New South Wales OH&S Act and the Victorian Outworkers (Improved Protection) Act 2003.

Amendments (Ms Dundas’s) agreed to.

Amendment (Ms Gallagher’s) as amended, agreed to.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Children, Youth and Family Support, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (12.15): I move amendment No 3 circulated in my name [see schedule 3 at page 2446].

This amendment simply substitutes the words “employee organisation” with the words “registered organisation”. This amendment is necessary to extend the right of entry to all organisations registered under the Commonwealth Workplace Relations Act, rather than only registered employee organisations. The amendment is consequential to the government’s first amendment.

Amendment agreed to.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Children, Youth and Family Support, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (12.16):

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