Bill
Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Amendment Bill 2017
passed, as at 2017-02-16. Employment portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Employment
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2017-02-08
- second reading — 2017-02-08
- second reading — 2017-02-14
- second reading — 2017-02-14
- third reading — 2017-02-14
- introduced — 2017-02-15
- second reading — 2017-02-15
- second reading — 2017-02-15
- second reading — 2017-02-15
- committee — 2017-02-15
- third reading — 2017-02-15
- passed — 2017-02-15
- royal assent — 2017-02-16
Divisions
- Brendan O'Connor I return to the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Amendment Bill 2017. Labor will oppose this bill for the reasons I have outlined and also for some other reasons, and I will go to some of those. I will recap. As I have said, this bill will bring forward a code to apply to the building industry and will have a number of implications, not least of all employers, their workforce and unions will be unable to bargain in exactly the same manner as every other employer, workforce and union in every other sector of our economy. In particular, the code, if implemented, will restrict the capacity for those parties to enterprise agreements to bargain on a range of things, including the ratio of apprentices. That is currently allowable under the Fair Work Act but would be disallowed by the code for this industry. For example, it would not allow an employer, workforce and union to strike a deal to have a ratio of apprentices for a number of workers. We think this will limit or diminish the efforts by some in the industry to improve the ratio of apprentices and give young people an opportunity to work. That is why we are so surprised that Senator Xenophon, who likes to say he supports workers, Senator Hinch, One Nation senators and others are supporting this bill. It also will deny employers, unions and workers the ability to regulate the forms of employment in any way. Therefore, it will not allow some restrictions about temporary worker use. We know temporary workers are often exploited in many industries in this country. We have seen recently some awful examples of exploitation, but so too some employers may seek to employ them over and above and instead of local workers. There are provisions currently in enterprise agreements, for example, in Queensland and Victoria that restrict that use or at least ensure that there is some preference for local workers. If it is the case that temporary workers are used to supplement areas of deman — 2017-02-14, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 75, noes 67
- No motion text available — 2017-02-14, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 76, noes 66
- Brendan O'Connor Leave is not granted. This is an important bill. There are members of this House who want to speak on this bill, including the member for Kennedy who wants to get on his feet and speak on this bill. The member for Scullin still wants to speak on this bill. Christopher Pyne I move: That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the motion for the third reading being moved without delay. — 2017-02-14, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 75, noes 67
- Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Amendment Bill 2017 - Third Reading - Put the question — 2017-02-14, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 76, noes 66
- The majority voted to pass the [bill](http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:legislation/billhome/r5806) in the House of Representatives. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a [third time](http://www.peo.gov.au/learning/fact-sheets/making-a-law.html). The bill will now go to the Senate, where the senators will decide if they also want to pass the bill so it can become law. ### What is the bill? The bill relates to enterprise agreements, which are "*collective agreements made at an enterprise level between employers and employees about terms and conditions of employment*" (see the [Fair Work Commission](https://www.fwc.gov.au/awards-and-agreements/agreements/make-agreement)). The bill's purpose is to introduce a shorter transition period so that agreements that don't comply with the Code have to be updated faster. It also reduces the scope of the transitional exemption from the enterprise agreement content rules in the Code. For more information about what all that means, see the [bills digest](http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1617a/17bd063). — 2017-02-14, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 76, noes 66
- Michaelia Cash I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in _Hansard_. Leave granted. _The speech read as follows—_ Today I introduce the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Amendment Bill 2017. The building and construction industry is a vital sector of the Australian economy. Ensuring an efficient, safe and law-abiding building and construction industry is crucial to promoting jobs, driving economic growth and managing the transition to a more diversified economy. This is why the Government last year re-established the Australian Building and Construction Commission to ensure building work is carried out fairly, efficiently, lawfully and safely for the benefit of all Australians. A crucial factor to drive reform and boost productivity is the content requirements for enterprise agreements contained in the _Code__for the Tendering and Performance of Building Work 2016_. This is achieved by prohibiting restrictive clauses in enterprise agreements that limit the ability of a contractor to manage its business or improve productivity, as well as those that give unions disproportionate power on building sites. This Bill amends the expiry of transitional 'grace period' from 28 November 2018 to 31 August 2017, for enterprise agreements made before the Building Code commenced on 2 December 2016. While new enterprise agreements made after 2 December 2016 must comply with the Code, building industry participants covered by existing enterprise agreements will have until 31 August 2017 to ensure their agreements are Code-compliant. The Bill also limits the exemption to building industry participants submitting expressions of interest and tendering for Commonwealth-funded building work. This means enterprise agreements will need to comply with the Building Code before contracts are awarded and work gets underway. Finally, the Bill makes appropriate transitional arrangements for those who — 2017-02-15, Senate: affirmative, ayes 33, noes 31
Plain-language summary
No machine-written summary in this export.
Sources
em
billhome
frl act