Federal Labor Strikes Deal With Greens, Crossbench to Pass Industrial Relations Bill

Leader of the House Tony Burke reacts during question time at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 28, 2022. Martin Ollman/Getty Images

In a surprise move, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has struck a deal with crossbenchers David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie to pass measures in its industrial relations bill.

The key measures, which came after the government split the Closing Loopholes Bill in two, were approved by the Senate on Dec. 7—the last parliamentary sitting day of the year.

The measures include providing “Same job, same pay” for labour hire workers, and criminalising intentional wage theft.

Additional measures include the new criminal offence of industrial manslaughter, better support for first responders’ post-traumatic stress disorder, and protections for workers subjected to family and domestic violence from discrimination at work.

Mr. Burke said other measures in the government’s original, larger bill will be debated next year.

These include the proposed casual employment changes and new gig economy provisions, which are not included in the agreement but will be debated next February after a Senate inquiry.

“I’m even more optimistic about those remaining provisions because of ... the goodwill and good intentions of the crossbench,” he said.

“In short, people are being underpaid by the labour hire loophole, that the small minority of employers think it’s OK to steal from a worker, those days are over, and it can end in Australia’s parliament today.”

Senators Pocock and Lambie said their support for the bill was to stop big companies, such as BHP and Qantas, from exploiting loopholes against workers.

“There are clearly legitimate uses of labour hire but we know that some employers are using it to pay workers less, and this will stop with this legislation,” Mr. Pocock said.

“Australians do not want the people who serve them on planes, who will be there to help keep them safe in an emergency to be employed by 12 different companies and to be constantly undercut. This is clearly a loophole that needs to be closed.”

Federal Labor Delivering a ‘Union Agenda’: Opposition

Opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the new agreement between Labor and the crossbench was an “attack on labour hire” delivered at the expense of employers.

“At its simplest, this is a government seeking to deliver a union agenda,” Ms. Cash said.

In a joint statement, Australia’s major business group said that the bill would give “significant increases to union powers in the workplace.”

“It will expand union delegates’ powers in workplaces and provide union delegates with uncapped training, funded by their employers and subject to union whim.”

Meanwhile, the Mining Council of Australia (MCA) has described the bill as “economic vandalism.”

“By rushing controversial workplace changes through the Senate, the government has dramatically increased the cost of doing business in Australia, costs that will undoubtedly flow through to consumers, in the midst of a cost of living crisis,” Tania Constable, chief executive of the MCA said on Dec. 7.

“By dramatically lifting the cost of doing business in Australia, business will simply look elsewhere, to other nations where opportunities abound and political risk is low.”

However, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus described the agreement as a “cost of living Christmas present” for working people, noting that more measures were to come.