Porter denies Labor claims on workplace laws

Christian Porter has denied claims proposed laws would open the way for the nurses’ union to be deregistered.

Attorney-General Christian Porter during Question Time yesterday. Picture: AAP

Attorney-General Christian Porter has denied Labor and union claims its proposed workplace laws would open the way for the nurses’ union to be deregistered if members took unprotected industrial action in support of better staff ratios.

The opposition and the ACTU insist passage of the Coalition’s Ensuring Integrity Bill would allow the Federal Court to deregister the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation if nurses took unprotected action to protest unsafe staffing levels at a hospital or aged-care facility.

But Mr Porter said the claim was absurd.

“No nurses’ union in Australia has ever engaged in the sort of systemic unlawful behaviour that would provide the basis for a court to deregister them,” he said.

“Labor is clearly running out of excuses for its opposition to this bill, which simply establishes a minimum standard for lawful behaviour in the workplace.”

The government argues the bill is drafted to avoid the consequences claimed by Labor and the ACTU.

In considering whether it would be “just, in all the circumstances” to deregister an organisation, the government says the bill expressly requires the Federal Court to consider the nature of the matter giving rise to the application and what is in the best interests of the members of the organisation as a whole.

But unions disputed that a union would have to engage in systemic unlawful behaviour to be deregistered, saying the bill required only one instance of “obstructive industrial action”.

Greens MP Adam Bandt told parliament that industrial action by nurses or bus drivers was potential grounds for deregistering their union under the bill, which will be subject to a Senate inquiry reporting by October 25 before being voted on in the Senate.

ACTU president Michele O’Neil said One Nation, Centre Alliance and Jacqui Lambie had all expressed concerns about the bill. She said it was outrageous that civil law breaches would be sufficient to get a union deregistered and criminal breaches were not required.

“The sort of civil breaches we are talking about is things like unions being late in their paperwork where companies are routinely late in lodging their paperwork,” Ms O’Neil said.