Hey John,
I got back from parliament on Last week on Friday morning and went straight to the Starting Point Neighbourhood House in Launceston.
After two weeks in Canberra spending time with people who provide a safe and friendly place for people doing it tough, is just what I needed!
The first Monday in Canberra the Crossbench got the Industrial Relations bill – you might have heard of it? The government call it the “Closing Loopholes” Bill. This bill is long – over 200 pages, and there is a lot in there. Changes to laws around workers in the ‘gig’ economy – that’s not just food delivery workers but also changes to aged care workers who are booked via an app. There’s also changes for businesses using labour hire firms, there’s more but I don’t have the space to list them all here!
There are also really good things in there; protections for victims of family and domestic violence, redundancy payments for people in small businesses that have gone out of business, bringing silica (the dust from cut stone bench tops) into line with Asbestos, and a really important amendment that would mean that federal Police and firies don’t have to prove they have PTSD to get help.
I think the government put these really important changes in with the industrial relations bill because they thought they could use it to pressure the Crossbench to pass the whole bill. It’s something both major parties like to try on.
This legislation is already going to an Inquiry in February and if passed won’t become law until July 2024. I have asked the government and the Minister to split the bill and pass the non-controversial parts of the bill now, these protections could be in place by the 1st of January.
