Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026
Dr GARLAND (Chisholm) (11:03): I think we should all be very proud of our enterprise bargaining system in Australia, which has provided for good outcomes for workers and for employers, and we should do what we can to defend this important system. Having said that, I'm very pleased to rise to speak on this important legislation today, which is legislation that builds on the Albanese Labor government's previous and important workplace reforms.
Of course, ensuring that we have a strong workplace relations system has long been the focus of the Australian Labor Party. The purpose of the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026 is to amend the Fair Work Act to make improvements to industrial relations arrangements. The building cooperative workplaces bill progresses important improvements to the workplace relations framework.
Our landmark secure jobs, better pay and closing loopholes reforms laid the foundations, and I am pleased to inform the House that our work on these important reforms will continue with the passage of this bill. On this side of the House, we are absolutely committed to ensuring our workplace relations framework supports cooperative and productive workplaces. Unfortunately, many of the speakers on the other side of the chamber have missed the important emphasis on cooperative workplaces in the title of this bill.
Cooperative workplaces include the kind of workplaces that we know will work for businesses, workers and the broader economy for our communities. It's important to highlight that our reforms are essential in ensuring that our workplace relations framework continues to be fit for purpose, continues to deliver fairer wages and secure jobs not just in my electorate of Chisholm but right across Australia.
Part of delivering these reforms also means ensuring that the Fair Work Commission processes continue to be effective and efficient. I'm proud to say that this legislation includes an amendment to enable progress to be made on our election commitment to develop the secure Australian jobs code. I think this code has been misunderstood by a number of those speaking on the opposite side of the chamber in that it focuses on making sure that taxpayer funds go to support good, secure jobs in our communities.
I don't think that's controversial at all. We know the Fair Work Commission plays a critical role as our national workplace relations tribunal, and our government is committed to ensuring that it continues to provide efficient dispute resolution services to workers and employers across Australia. One of the realities that we have come to understand about the Fair Work Commission's workload is that it has been really steadily increasing in recent years.
As the minister has previously outlined in this place, the emerging challenges such as the rise of artificial intelligence, the prevalence of paid agents and the flow-on implications of the recent Milford court decision have been impacting the commission's processing times and requirements. Significantly, the measures included in this bill are designed to assist the commission to better manage its workload and to support a more efficient and effective workplace relations framework.
Of course, we seek to do this without reducing protections for workers. Through this legislation we will save not only the Fair Work Commission's time but also that of relevant parties involved in matters before the commission. We'll also save them money.
We'll do this by ensuring that the commission can deal with the substance of a general protections dismissal matter without first having to deal with jurisdictional issues. This element of the bill seeks to deal with the unintended consequences of a Federal Court decision. I've referred to it already, the Milford decision, which is placing unnecessary additional burden on the Fair Work Commission as well as on employers, workers and their unions.
It will allow the president of the commission to delegate their power to certify that a general protections matter is unlikely to be resolved by conciliation. It will allow the commission to dismiss unfair termination and unfair deactivation applications that are frivolous or vexatious or have no reasonable prospect of success. It will enable the commission to prevent vexatious litigants from making further applications, and it will expand the circumstances in which the commission can decide a matter on the papers where the parties consent without holding a hearing or conducting a conference.
It will also allow the recommencement of supported bargaining without the need for a new authorisation, where an authorisation has already been made less than two years ago. Again, this will save the Fair Work Commission and parties involved both time and money. Our government has committed to develop a secure Australian jobs code to ensure that Commonwealth government spending supports secure jobs and fair conditions in all of our communities right across Australia.
We know that enterprise agreements that are genuinely agreed and negotiated in good faith can be a really important, transparent and effective way of delivering secure jobs and fair conditions for workers as well as delivering flexibility and productivity for employers. Subsequently, the bill under consideration will allow the Commonwealth to preference enterprise agreements that have been negotiated in good faith and genuinely agreed, where appropriate to do so, building cooperative workplaces as the title of the bill suggests.
This is the right thing to do. Of course, value for money, quality and timeliness will absolutely remain front and centre of all government spending decisions and considerations and, as already announced, a different approach will be taken in the construction industry. Consistent with the recommendations of the NCIF, the government has announced consultation on the development of strong standalone standards aimed at ensuring government spending drives lawful and productive behaviour in the construction industry.
As the minister has already made crystal clear, the government has no intention of replicating BPIC and under no circumstances will employers be required to be covered by an enterprise agreement covered by a union as a condition of receiving government funding. The bill will make minor but important changes to support the government's tripartite National Construction Industry Forum and the CFMEU administration in their ongoing and really important work of reforming the construction industry.
Clarifying the travel allowance rate for NCIF members, replacing Minister Ayres with Minister O'Neill to reflect machinery-of-government changes and adding Minister Giles as a permanent member due to the strong skills component of the forum's Blueprint for the future is also really essential here. We're also clarifying the CFMEU administrator's biannual financial reporting requirements, which currently require a report effectively immediately at the conclusion of a given financial year.
In this bill, we're also committed to ensuring truckies get a fair go. The bill will allow a new road transport industry high-income threshold to be made, and that will apply to contractors in the road transport industry, which we know is an incredibly important industry to our nation. This recognises that truck drivers have high out-of-pocket costs and that conventional high-income thresholds are simply not fit for purpose for this sector.
We will consult on what this new threshold should be. That should come as no surprise, because our government has worked really hard to consult with relevant parties when making important decisions like this. The intention here is to ensure that more truck drivers can access our quick and easy process to challenge an unfair contract in the Fair Work Commission.
This clearly builds on the important reforms we've already made to back truck drivers and our trucking industry, including the fairer fuel act, which creates an urgent pathway with a high threshold that allows truck drivers and transport operators to argue for a fairer share. This is in addition to our world-leading laws laying the foundations for gig workers to achieve, for the first time, minimum standards.
It should come as absolutely no surprise to anybody in this place that the Albanese Labor government stands with workers, communities and employers to build cooperative workplaces that seek to provide good outcomes for workers, businesses and our communities. We know that secure jobs drive participation in communities. I spoke about this in my very first speech—that, when people have certainty over hours and wages, they can make commitments to their local communities.
They can put down roots. They can know that on their weekends they'll have time to give to their local sporting clubs. They can be involved in local parent groups.
They can make those kinds of decisions because they have the security of a job that they can count on. This is an extension of the work we as a government already did in our first term and are building on here in our second term. It should, as I've said before in my speech today, be uncontroversial that a government would seek to ensure that Commonwealth funds are able to provide good, secure jobs for people in our communities.
This should be something that we all aspire to achieve for every worker in our electorates. It is disappointing that some in this chamber don't understand this point or seem not to understand this point. I hope that we can continue to work as a parliament, and certainly we on this side of the House will continue to work as a government, to provide good, secure, well-paying jobs for workers.
We know this is the foundation of building a good life in this country, and I'm very, very proud to be part of a government that understands how important this objective is.