Employer groups, the Jacqui Lambie Network and the Coalition have backed calls from David Pocock to split Labor’s industrial relations bill and deal with uncontentious parts this year, including workers’ compensation and discrimination law reforms.
The Coalition has suggested the influential crossbencher could move a private senator’s bill to move forward with provisions improving access to workers’ compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder in the ACT as a priority, but he insists he will first work with the government.
Last week Pocock voted with the Coalition and the rest of the Senate crossbench except the Greens to send the closing loopholes bill to an inquiry to report in February, a setback for the government which hoped to pass it this year.
Elements of the bill, including gig economy and labour hire changes, have prompted fierce backlash over their cost to employers.
But Pocock wants to deal with several parts this year, including: banning discrimination against employees experiencing family and domestic violence; the workers’ compensation change; and provisions criminalising wage theft.
While employers may not agree with every item on the list, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Acci), AiGroup, Minerals Council and Master Builders agree in principle with splitting the bill, allowing the discrimination and workers compensation law changes to be dealt with immediately.
On Tuesday Lambie agreed that discrimination, workers’ compensation, small business insolvency and silicosis measures should be dealt with this year; but did not back wage theft as a priority topic.
Lambie accused the workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, of trying to use the workers’ comp as “leverage” for the broader closing loopholes bill but said the crossbench was “one step ahead”.
“Stop mixing these in as leverage,” she told reporters in Canberra.
The shadow workplace relations minister, Michaelia Cash, said: “Once a bill from senator Pocock is tabled, the Coalition will consider the legislation according to the usual party processes.”
“Labor should never have included provisions to support first responders and strengthen protections against discrimination in this omnibus bill in the first instance.”
“This was a deliberate and cynical ploy to put pressure on the crossbench to agree to Labor’s timetable to ram the bill through the Senate with little to no scrutiny this year.”
A spokesperson for Pocock said there is not currently a proposal for a private senator’s bill. Pocock told reporters in Canberra that “nothing has been drafted”, indicating he will first pressure the government to agree.
The Acci chief executive, Andrew McKellar, told Guardian Australia: “In principle, we support splitting the bill to deal with those aspects that are less contentious.”
Innes Willox, chief executive of AiGroup, said “the government has, at the moment, unfortunately embarked on a crash through or crash approach”. Willox urged the Senate inquiry to consider if the bill should be split to allow the bipartisan passage of any parts of the proposals.
“A more sophisticated and serious approach may be to separate the bill into its many components and work them through a proper process of consideration, scrutiny and debate,” he said.
On Monday, the Master Builders Australia chief executive, Denita Wawn, said although it “opposes the bill outright” it agrees if the government “can get support from the crossbench on those less contentious matters” it should “strip out specific issues that would get more support than the omnibus would”.
Wawn told reporters in Canberra it would be up to the government which sections to legislate separately, but it was “ridiculous” to think it could pass the whole bill this year and it knew the introduction of the reforms as an omnibus was “fraught for them”.
Last week Pocock said: “I want to see genuine loopholes closed and better protections for workers but I am also mindful of adding further complexity to business, especially small business, as well as ensuring there is time to look at any unintended consequences.
“Changes can be made now to benefit Australians while we take the time to work through the more complex elements of the bill to get them right,” he said, noting that those elements are not due to begin until July.
“The reforms to make it easier for fireys, police officers and other first responders to access workers compensation for PTSD in the ACT deliver on a key part of my agreement with the government out of last year’s industrial relations reforms.
“These reforms will be life-changing and they should pass at the earliest opportunity, preferably with bipartisan support.”
Pocock warned that failure to separate those elements would “add unnecessary political uncertainty” to debate over the bill, which he said “is dangerous and deeply upsetting to those police, paramedics and firefighters that have been fighting for these changes for years”.
