PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Mr REBELLO (McPherson) (11:53): There is no question that the coalition supports an industrial relations system that is simple, that is fair and that is easy to comply with. And it should provide both workers and employers with timely access to justice. Those opposite talk about fairness, but when I look at this motion I have to ask: fairness for whom?
This motion demonstrates that this government still doesn't understand the real problem with Australia's industrial relations system. The problem is not actually the name of the court or how many courts there are; the problem is the complexity of the system itself. And at a time when, as a country, small businesses are going through absolute hell because of what this government is putting them through—we are seeing record insolvencies, as my colleague the member for Mitchell spoke about—we're making it even harder for employers to do what they do best—that is, employing people.
Our industrial relations system in this country is extraordinarily complex. There are layers upon layers of legislation, awards, regulations, agreements, rules and obligations. But the government's answer to that complexity is, apparently, to create another court.
That doesn't simplify the system; it just adds another layer to it. If the government is genuinely concerned about delays in workplace disputes, there are other options available to it. It can look to better resource the existing courts.
I have a number of fantastic professionals in my electorate who work in the industrial relations space. I spoke to them this morning on the phone, and I said: 'I'm being asked to speak on this motion. What are your views?' They said, 'This is actually out of touch with what the actual need is.' As they said to me, and like I said, if the problem is a lack of judicial resources the government should be better resourcing the courts we already have.
Don't create another institution and pretend that that solves the underlying problem. We have watched this movie before. The concern we're seeing from employers, employer representative groups and industry is that, as the motion says, 'the Fair Work Court would be staffed by specialist judges with expertise in workplace relations'.
The concern for all of us on this side of the chamber and the concern for those employers out there is that the new court will instead be loaded with judges from a union employer background and, in effect, will become partisan or ideological. It will just become yet another avenue for Labor to push the views of its union mates—and that means it's about bullying employers into settling.
It will not lead to fairer outcomes; it will lead to employers copping more. There's also a concern that moving into a specialist court like the one that is proposed would divorce decisions about this area of law from other areas of law and general principles that may continue to become relevant. Like I said, the problem isn't the name of the court or the fact that this court is there; it's the complexity of the system itself.
The complexity of industrial regulation in this country is the problem, not the court system. We have amongst the most complex systems in the world. Government needs to make our incredibly complex industrial relations system more simple—and it does that by revisiting the legislation that is being put through in this building and seeing whether it is fit for purpose and whether it's prohibitive to doing business in this country.
Until it does that, the problems are going to continue. We see people who are doing the right thing. They're running their businesses and they're wanting to employ Australians.
They're in a situation where they're not wanting to have to do so because it is too difficult to employ someone. This is a quote from someone in my electorate I spoke to earlier today: 'If I had a dollar for every time I explained the risks to a small business under our employment and fair-work system, they say, "Why would I employ anyone?"' That is right, because it's impossible to comply with every aspect of your obligations if you're an employer in this country—especially for SMEs, for small and medium enterprises.
If large organisations and large corporations can't comply as it is, and if the unions can't comply and are in breach from time to time, of course small businesses, who don't have the resources that these large companies have, are going to have issues. That is something that is symptomatic of a broken system. I ask this government: fair to who?
If you genuinely want a fairer industrial relations system, start by making the law simpler. The problem isn't that Australia doesn't have enough industrial relations courts; the problem is that the system is too complex. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Fernando ): The time allotted for this debate has expired.