Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027

Ms McKENZIE (Flinders) (12:06): I want to use my time today to speak up for the people who rarely get a seat at the table when we're talking about employment and industrial relations policy, and that is Australia's small-business owners. Before entering this place I ran a small business, I sat on the board of the committee for Mornington Peninsula, and I worked as an industrial relations lawyer.

I know what it's like to try and do the right thing by your people and to feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of workplace law that you're expected to master just to keep the doors open. The employment and industrial relations framework that governs small business in this country has become extraordinarily complex. We have the Fair Work Act, over 100 modern awards, enterprise agreements, the National Employment Standards, the right-to-disconnect obligations that now apply to small business and, from 1 July this year, payday superannuation requiring employers to pay super with every single wage payment, not quarterly as they have done in the past.

Every one of those changes, taken alone, might sound reasonable, but, taken together, they represent an almost impossible compliance burden on, for example, a cafe owner in Frankston or a tradie on the peninsula or a family running a small construction firm. The Fair Work Commission itself told us in February that lodgements of workplace claims have increased by 40 per cent over the previous three-year average.

And what did the government do in the budget? It allocated $1.3 million to give small businesses specialised support to navigate the commission. Rather than fix the complexity, they're just helping small help desks to manage it.

And the pressure doesn't stop there. Yesterday, the Fair Work Commission handed down its annual wage review decision—a 4.75 per cent increase to modern award minimum wages, effective on 1 July. That's on top of payday super, on top of the right to disconnect and on top of a minimum wage that was already lifted by 3.5 per cent last year.

Now, I want to be clear: no-one on this side of the chamber opposes workers being paid fairly. But the cumulative impact of these changes landing all at once on 1 July on small-business payrolls is substantial, and the government has provided almost no transition support or simplification measures to help small employers absorb them. Is it any wonder that last year 370,000 small businesses exited the market?

This morning, we've also found out that the government is also pursuing legislation that would allow the Commonwealth to preference employers covered by an enterprise agreement when awarding government contracts. On the face of it, this might appear to be inoffensive. In practice, it is deeply concerning for all small businesses.

The overwhelming majority of small businesses in this country operate under modern awards, not enterprise agreements. They do not have the workforce size, the army of HR advisers or the legal resources to negotiate and administer an enterprise agreement. Legislating to preference their larger, better resourced competitors in government procurement purely on the basis of industrial relations structure is not productivity policy.

It is using the Commonwealth's purchasing power to tilt the playing field against small business and to force them into multi-employer agreements, as they have already done in early childhood. I also want to address the CFMEU. Geoffrey Watson SC, the union's own court-appointed corruption investigator, has estimated that criminal infiltration of Victoria's Big Build cost taxpayers $15 billion.

The Allen government disputes that figure, but is there any figure that would or could be acceptable to taxpayers? The Suburban Rail Loop, which Senate estimates has revealed already had 16 instances of alleged wrongdoing that the government was aware of, has received another $3.8 billion from this government in this budget. Given that the government continues to reward bad behaviour, it's no surprise that the tactics that triggered the CFMEU's administration in the first place haven't stopped.

At Snowy Hydro 2.0, a project that's gone from $2 billion to a potential $42 billion, officials lodged over 500 worksite entry requests in a single year, including 84 in one day. This is not accountability. I have some questions for the minister about her budget, should she deign to join us today.

With Fair Work claims up 40 per cent and AI making lodgement cheaper for claimants—but defence is not cheaper for small employers—the budget's response was $1.3 million for a help desk. Can the minister name one structural reform to reduce that burden? The government's procurement legislation would allow the Commonwealth to preference employers.

Most small businesses operate under awards. Can the minister explain why a small-business owner who can't afford to negotiate an enterprise agreement should be locked out of government contracts? The government's criminal wage theft laws took effect in January.

Small-business owners who make a payroll error— (Time expired)