Page 5444 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 8 December 2009

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Mr Rattenbury has just suggested that as part of the training course that employees in the security industry already have to go through to be accredited to work in the industry there should be a component that informs them about workers’ rights and entitlements. That is exactly what this amendment does, Mr Rattenbury. It requires that a component of that training must be delivered by an employee representative organisation on employee’s rights and entitlements.

I am yet to hear an argument from the Greens and the Liberal Party about why it is that employers who do the wrong thing and do not pay award rates and conditions or do not observe occupational health and safety obligations are suddenly, out of the goodness of their heart, going to deliver a training program that informs employees of those rights and entitlements. They are just not going to do it, Mr Rattenbury, because they do not do it now. The good ones do it now, but we are not worried about them. We are worried about those vulnerable workers caught in employment situations where the employer does not properly inform them of their rights and conditions in terms of work or about their occupational health and safety rights and obligations. That is what this amendment does.

The amendments proposed now by Mrs Dunne gut the bill of these provisions in their entirety. Make no mistake about it: that is what the Greens will be voting for today. They will be gutting this bill of all the provisions that provide low-paid workers with information about their rights in the workplace. That is what the Greens are going to be voting for today. The government will be calling a division on this bill. We want to see the other parties put their names on the record in relation to these proposals. I know where the Liberal Party stand. I am not surprised at the Liberal Party. They will find any reason to oppose the involvement of unions in the workplace. For the Greens to come into this place and say, “We’re opposed to unions being involved in the workplace and delivering this information to employees” is a disgrace and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Question put:

That Mrs Dunne’s amendments be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Amendments agreed to.

Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

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