Key crossbenchers in bid to split up IR bill

Key Senate crossbenchers have urged Labor to break up its industrial relations bill and legislate four less contentious elements this year.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Key Senate crossbenchers have urged Labor to break up its industrial relations bill and legislate four less contentious elements this year.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke and the ACTU have stressed, however, that they wanted the entire bill passed this year.

After last week siding with the Coalition and delaying passage of the industrial relations bill until at least February, ACT senator David Pocock and the Jacqui Lambie Network have now called on Labor to strip out four elements and make them law from January 1.

The four areas include the proposal to simplify workers’ compensation for first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder, including firefighters, Australian Federal Police employees and ambulance officers in the Commonwealth jurisdiction; and the expansion of the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency to eliminate silica-related diseases.

The crossbenchers also want to strip out proposals to strengthen protections against discrimination for employees subjected to family and domestic violence, and to clarify rules around small business insolvency measures.

Senator Lambie accused Mr Burke of putting the measures in the bill as leverage while Senator Pocock said he would like the four measures passed this year ahead of the crossbench spending more time digging into the bill’s more contentious elements.

A spokesman for Mr Burke said: “At no stage has the government supported any of these measures being delayed.”

ACTU secretary Sally McManus on Tuesday said “the cost-of-living crisis is hurting workers all over Australia”.

“We were disappointed to see last week’s delay, which will elongate the hardships for gig workers, labour hire workers and those who are victims of wage theft,” Ms McManus said.

“The best way to get wages moving is to implement the proposals in (their) entirety at the earliest opportunity.”

Minerals Council Australia chief executive Tania Constable commended the crossbench senators for their smart approach while calling out the government’s “cynical decision to lump some sensible policy changes in the same bill as some of the most radical and contentious industrial relations changes we have ever seen”.

Mr Burke seized on the support shown by Barnaby Joyce in 2018 for cracking down on labour hire exploitation.

A Coalition-majority committee chaired by Mr Joyce at that time backed a trade union push to guarantee casual mining workers the right to convert to permanent employment after a set time.

The committee also called on the Coalition government to review the use of casualised work­forces and ­labour hire companies in the mining sector, and further backed changes to the Fair Work Act to ban the replacement of directly employed workers with long-term casuals.

Mr Burke said “Coalition MPs know there is a problem here”.

“They know workers are getting ripped off,” he added.

“They know the labour hire loophole is undercutting wages. And they know people are getting trapped as permanent casuals”.

“They never did anything about it while in government – despite hearing all the evidence,” Mr Burke said.

“Labor is acting. We will close this loophole. Will any Liberal and National MPs cross the floor to help us close it? Or are they still trying to keep wages low and hold workers back?”