Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025

Senator KOVACIC (New South Wales) (17:55): Why does the bill effectively push small businesses towards union representation as the default in bargaining processes? We've established that IFAs are rarely used. The alternative is to have particular agreements.

As I outlined earlier with my case of the single mum that had a specific agreement with her employer that could now be retrospectively captured under this legislation, the option for them is to go to the EBA. Why isn't there a process where they can continue the arrangement that is beneficial and acceptable to both of them without engaging with a union for that purpose?