Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026

Mr LLEW O'BRIEN (Wide Bay) (12:05): I rise to speak on the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill, which is intended to amend the Fair Work Act 2009, the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 and the Independent Contractors Act 2006. The government claims this is supposed to improve the operation of the workplace relations framework.

The government says the bill introduces measures that will streamline the processes of the Fair Work Commission and ensure the Fair Work Act can operate more effectively. The government also says it will encourage enterprise bargaining and deliver better protections for contractors, particularly those in the road transport sector. This is to be achieved by removing some of the red tape around the Fair Work Act to allow the Fair Work Commission to be more efficient, particularly in matters relating to dismissal or unlawful termination disputes, and enabling the commission to dismiss or prevent frivolous, vexatious or unreasonable cases and applications.

There are four key policy objectives in the bill. The first is to make dispute resolution faster and more efficient and reduce the delays, costs and administrative burden for workers, employers and the commission. It all sounds very good, doesn't it?

The second is to promote enterprise bargaining and improve workplace outcomes to deliver higher wages, increased productivity and tailored workplace arrangements through collective bargaining, higher wages and increased productivity. That also sounds good—too good, actually. The third is to improve fairness to contractors, especially in the road transport sector, by extending protections for unfair termination and contract thresholds.

The fourth is intended to modernise the system and remove some of the technical flaws in the existing legislation. This sounds like quite an innocuous and reasonable bill that will deliver improvements for workers and their employers, but, like with everything this government does, there is a hidden agenda. While the majority of the bill deals with the procedural aspects of the functioning of the Fair Work Commission, there is a ticking time bomb within that will fundamentally change the future of Australia's industrial landscape and the economy generally.

Disguised as part of the enterprise bargaining and improved workplace outcomes mechanisms are the procurement and funding incentives, which give the government the power to lawfully favour employers with enterprise agreements when awarding contracts and giving financial assistance. This proposed amendment is designed to give the trade union movement even more power over the Australian economy and create an anticompetitive environment that permits the Labor government to openly favour tenders for government contracts from businesses that have a trade-union backed enterprise agreement.

Business owners in Wide Bay have expressed their concerns to me personally about this aspect of the bill and they are very worried and they're rightfully very worried. One local business is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar project that will deliver important new regional infrastructure. They don't have any unions in their business and they are, rightly, worried how this bill will impact their competitiveness when tendering for government projects and grants.

One of the key elements of Australia's industrial relations system has always been the right of freedom of association for employers and employees. This was entrenched in the Fair Work Act in 2009, giving workers the right to choose to be in a union member or not. This bill allows the government or a Commonwealth authority to choose who gets contracts or grants based on whether a business has a union enterprise agreement.

The amendment goes further by allowing the government to exclude businesses that are planning to make an enterprise agreement, but haven't yet, or that already have one but without union involvement. These rules could affect the whole supply chain, because government contracts often require all contractors and subcontractors to have agreement terms that are at least as good as those of the main contractor.

This cascading effect means that employers who have no direct contractual relationship with the government could be forced to enter into an enterprise agreement with a union in order to secure a contract with another business many levels from the head contract. It will influence the wider economy far greater than the original government contracts. The Fair Work Commission reforms contained in this bill seem to be warranted, but the procurement bargaining provisions will only further this government's aim to entrench union controlled enterprise agreement structures into the workplace landscape.

This bill should be split so this House can pass the Fair Work Commission reforms while the implications of the procurement amendments can be properly examined. As it stands, I cannot give my support to this bill.