Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026
Senator CAROL BROWN (Tasmania) (17:45): I rise to support the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. Some laws are about making the system work better—making sure that, when a worker or a small business needs help, they can get it without being caught up in delay, confusion or cost. This is what this bill does.
It is a commonsense bill. It supports fairer workplaces. It supports better bargaining.
It supports truck drivers and small road transport businesses. It helps the Fair Work Commission to do its job more quickly and more fairly. And it backs the simple idea that, when the Commonwealth spends public money, it should be able to support secure jobs and fair conditions.
That matters in Tasmania. It matters in Greater Hobart, right across the state and across the country. For most people, workplace laws are not something they think about every day, but they matter when your pay is wrong, they matter when your job is on the line, they matter when you're worried about speaking up at work and they matter when something has gone wrong and you need a fair way to sort it out.
For a worker in a care home in Lenah Valley, a cleaner in Hobart, a truckie driving up the Midlands Highway or a construction worker building homes in the northern suburbs, these rules matter. They matter because people should be able to go to work, do their job and know the rules are fair. The Fair Work Commission is central to that.
It is where workers and employers go when they need a fair umpire. But the commission is under pressure. The workload has grown.
New technology, including artificial intelligence, has made it easier for people to lodge claims, including claims that may have no real chance of success. That can slow down the system for everyone else, but, when the system slows down, it is ordinary people who feel it. A worker who has lost their job should not have to wait longer than they need to.
A small-business owner should not have to spend months and thousands of dollars dealing with a matter that could have been sorted earlier. Unions, workers and employers all need a system that is fair, clear and timely. This bill helps deliver that.
It allows the Fair Work Commission to get to the heart of some general protections dismissal matters more quickly without first needing to run a formal hearing on whether a dismissal happened. That means the commission can spend less time on procedural arguments and more time trying to resolve the actual dispute. The bill allows some matters to be dealt with on the papers where that is appropriate and where the parties agree.
Again, that saves money. It saves time. The PRESIDENT: Pursuant to order agreed on 23 June 2026, the time allotted for consideration of eight bills has expired.