Small business groups “disappointed” as Labor blocks debate on specific IR reforms

The Albanese government has swatted away the Coalition’s bid to debate four widely-supported industrial relations reforms in the House of Representatives, disappointing business representatives who want the measures passed into law as soon as possible.

Last week, independent Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock successfully pushed to separate four non-controversional reforms contained within the government’s Closing Loopholes bill, which contains a slew of highly contentious measures.

The four measures include the closure of an anomaly in redundancy payment rules; workplace protections for survivors of family and domestic violence; expanding compensation for employees experiencing post traumatic stress disorder; and expanding the asbestos safety regime to also cover silicosis and silica-related diseases.

Those four split-off IR reforms came before the lower house on Monday, but Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke pushed for the changes not to be debated.

He argued that separating them from the government’s other proposed IR reforms was an attempt to stall the broader Closing Loopholes package.

“This government will not say to workers who are being underpaid that their concern is somehow not so controversial, that it’s a second-rate concern and something that we would vote to delay,” Burke said.

“We’re not going to say to gig workers, ‘you can just wait as long as possible before you have any minimum rates’.

“We’re not going to say to the families of people who have died at work, ‘oh, we’ll just delay industrial manslaughter into the never-never’.”

The Labor party, which maintains the balance of power in the House of Representatives, voted not to immediately debate the four split-off measures — despite the bills effectively copying parts of the Closing Loopholes package.

The split-off bills will now be debated at a later date.

The Closing Loopholes package itself is set for debate once a parliamentary report is tabled in early 2024.

Paul Fletcher, the federal opposition’s manager of business, denied claims that attempting to pass the four split-off measures was a ploy to delay the broader omnibus bill.

“Any argument that might be made that this is in some way distracting or diverting the House from other urgent matters which need to be dealt with is not an argument which ought to be given very serious consideration,” he said.

The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, which supports the four split-off measures but opposes the Closing Loopholes package at large, voiced its “disappointment” at the Labor government’s handling of the measures.

“Passing these Bills now will ensure that these urgent issues are dealt with, and that further time is permitted to scrutinise the remaining parts of the government’s major workplace reforms,” COSBOA said in a joint statement, alongside organisations including the Restaurant and Catering Industry Association and the Australian Retailers Association.