Page 1393 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 3 May 2016
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rest, maintain your health, see your family, and live your life without it all being about work. People need this. We are not economic units existing to work until exhaustion and then be discarded.
I do recognise the other side to this debate. As I have said, I have met with the Canberra Business Chamber as well as several industry representatives. Yes, there are businesses and industries that have legitimate pressures. They need to manage their business, their finances and their employees. These are challenging tasks, and there are a lot of obligations that businesses need to meet. I understand and respect these difficulties. Portable long service leave is another obligation that they need to meet.
But even though a portable long service leave scheme will add an extra consideration for business, I believe it is still the right thing to do. It will introduce a significant benefit to people working in the industry, a benefit that they deserve. I hope that over time the scheme will benefit the industries themselves as there will be an additional incentive for workers to keep working in a particular sector.
Representatives of the aged-care sector, for example, said that it was quite a challenge to retain people in the job. The portable long service leave scheme is one way to keep people in a particular sector, as they will now be able to accrue long service leave despite changes to their employer within the community sector.
Despite the fact that I agree with introducing these new portable long service leave schemes, I have taken on board the concerns that industry representatives have raised with me. I have discussed them with Minister Gentleman. Some of the requests can be dealt with administratively. For example, the minister has made some commitments about consultation on changes to the levy.
I also want to note the way the portable long service leave scheme levy is calculated for each industry. It is based on an independent actuarial assessment, and it takes into account all of the relevant data to ensure the levy reflects the number of employees being paid long service leave under the scheme. It is adjusted from time to time to reflect changes in the industry.
I think this answers many of the fears raised by industry, who are concerned they would pay too much or would pay for employees who would then leave the sector. But these factors are reflected in the levy to ensure it is accurate, to ensure that there is no “overcharging”, as it might be described, occurring in the scheme. The levy may even reduce after some amount of time, as has occurred in other industries as the actuarial data matches the on-the-ground situation with numbers of employees and the like.
In conclusion, I reiterate my support for this bill. The portable long service leave scheme is a good scheme. It is consistent with Greens values that recognise and respect the needs and the rights of working people. I think the scheme is well balanced and it is appropriate that it is administered via a levy in the relevant industries so that employees who work for a long time can get that long service leave that they are entitled to and we ensure that we see a better work-life balance in this country.
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