PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr REBELLO (McPherson) (18:00): I rise to speak to this bill in relation to the government's changes or proposed changes to non-compete clauses, and it's worth noting that the coalition will carefully examine the bill after it's introduced into the parliament and determine whether or not it's something that we consider worthy of our support. I think it's fair to say that, if the reaction from the business community is anything to go by, we should approach this debate with a cautious sense of concern.

I say that because, if you look at what some of the business groups are saying—if you look at COSBOA, if you look at the Australian Industry Group—the warnings are considerable and the warnings are real. We have seen too many examples of this government announcing policies without properly considering the consequences of those policies. I take the comments of the previous member, the member for Maribyrnong, who spoke about the consequences of this on the wages of employees and how it could possibly increase the wages of employees, but I will say also that there's no point lifting wages if no business is left to pay them, and that's why we need to make sure in this debate that it is balanced and that we do consider both sides.

If businesses don't do well, it's very difficult for employees to do well. It's worth going back to why these clauses actually exist. They exist because it's recognition of the amount of effort and investment that small businesses across this country put in to employees, especially when you're considering small and medium or family sized businesses.

These are people who invest a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of opportunity cost into their employees, into skilling them and into training them. The purpose of these clauses is to, in effect, provide not only an incentive to do so but some sort of security for that business to say, if you do this, there is a quid pro quo where that employee is able to contribute to the fullest extent to your business without fear of them taking their training and going elsewhere.

There are still ways that employees can move, of course. Those are rights that are protected within the framework of the current legislation. If you look at, for example, what COSBOA have said, they have raised some of the concerns on small business.

They've spoken about small businesses who are trying to protect their workforce. They're trying to protect their goodwill, and, very importantly—I, before coming to this place, was a lawyer—it's all about that customer goodwill and that customer relationship and the value that has been built over many years, sometimes over many decades. I think we just need to be careful in approaching this proposal as to whether or not it's going to disproportionately affect small businesses to the extent that it becomes prohibitive to employ people, but we also don't want to interfere with that culture between the employer and the employee.

That's just a note of concern that I think the government needs to take. I think the government needs to recognise that there are these legitimate concerns from organisations who do represent businesses across the Australian economy, and those concerns do need to be taken seriously. I say, within the framework of this government's approach, they do have a record of, unfortunately, not testing these ideas effectively with the people who are going to be affected by the policies.

I recognise that there was a consultation period, but, as with everything with government, we need to make sure that that consultation is meaningful and that it actually gets to the mum-and-dad small businesses and gets to the family run businesses, because I think they will find, similar to what we've seen in terms of the ATO credit card surcharge changes in terms of the changes to the treatment of trusts, in terms of some of the changes to capital gains tax—we've seen the way that the business community has been disproportionately affected in this country.

I'd suggest to the government that they consider the views of those different stakeholder groups fully and wholly in coming to their final position on this legislation. I understand part of the intent of what the government's saying; however, I will say that there is another side to this, and that is the employers. I will say, again, there's no point lifting wages if there is no business left to pay them.