Page 1117 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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governments for the federal government to introduce a national scheme. But, as should be the case, the federal government maintains that it is a matter for states, if they see fit.
You can see clearly along party lines which states have introduced these laws and those which have not. For example, New South Wales has not implemented the laws but Victoria has. It makes it even harder for ACT businesses to have one set of rules and regulations on one side of the border and yet additional red tape on the other. Just kilometres away, in New South Wales, the situation is vastly different.
A perpetual issue for anyone conducting a business is the contradictory industrial relations landscape that exists, especially given that the ACT is only a small jurisdiction. Although this legislation comes as no surprise, I am completely at a loss as to why at this time, as we are in the midst of a profound economic crisis the likes of which most of us have not ever seen before, the Labor-Greens government consider this piece of legislation a priority.
In the construction sector alone employment has declined by eight per cent since the end of March, more than any other state or territory in the country. Overall, nearly 10,000 Canberrans have lost their jobs since the COVID crisis commenced. The services of labour hire companies in assisting both employers and job seekers are now more crucial than ever. We should be making it easier for business to help get Canberrans back to work. We need only look at each sitting week after each sitting week, as we see one ideologically driven law after another steamrolled through this place, to understand the reasoning behind the urgency.
The licensing scheme proposed by the Barr government will require all labour hire operators to be licensed. They will have to pay a fee for that licence and there will be consequences for anyone who uses an unlicensed labour hire operator. On top of that, operators will be required to undergo a suitable person test to determine their suitability and will be required to demonstrate a history of and ongoing compliance with industrial relations standards and workplace law. For many operators who require this licence, it will be a duplication of what the government’s procurement job code already requires of them. This is red tape in anyone’s language.
This is bad legislation that will result in dire consequences for employers, industries and employees alike, and ultimately will get in the way of job creation in Canberra when we need it most. The government are aware of this and yet they have failed to act on the concerns that have been raised with them, most particularly around the broad definition of “labour hire” as it appears in the bill.
The impacts on group training organisations, who are captured in the bill as a labour hire provider, will be enormous. In January the Barr government cut funding for apprenticeships and training places, and this is yet another slug to the training sector at a time when it needs more support than ever. The legacy will be a rethink by these organisations of the costs to operate in the ACT as opposed to other areas in the country, and it will result in a further loss of training places. That will leave the ACT with a huge gap in the apprenticeship and training space at a time when the
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