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Other Parliamentary Speeches

This page is dedicated to Peter's speeches during parliament that do not fall under Questions or Questions without notice. They range from debating legislation, reporting on events or issues in his seat of Southport and his Ministerial Statements.

Contract Cleaning Industry (Portable Long Service Leave) Bill
Posted by Administrator (admin) on May 12 2005
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Mr LAWLOR (Southport-ALP) (4.05 pm): I also rise to support the Contract Cleaning Industry (Portable Long Service Leave) Bill 2005. I want to start by complimenting the minister, his staff and his department on the legislation which is before the House. This is a piece of legislation that is near and dear to my heart in the sense that the first constituent to see me after I was elected in 2001 was a cleaner who had worked in the same workplace for 17 years and yet had not accrued one day of long service leave. Every three or four or five years the cleaning work was put out for contract. Whilst he might have been working with, for argument's sake, ABC Pty Ltd for three years, the tender would then be won by XYZ Pty Ltd. He would go to work the next day. He would be with the same people he worked for- his same bosses and so on- but in a legal sense it was a completely new legal entity. As a result, he did not accrue any long service leave whatsoever. Certainly, this bill will address that problem.

I do not know whether it was a ploy by the employers to actually avoid their responsibilities so far as long service leave goes. It may well have been, actually. If it was, it certainly was very effective. I did discuss this matter with the department some years ago. Of course, like most things in government- any government- things move fairly slowly. But, of course, no legislation can be introduced overnight. These things take time. There must be consultation with the various stakeholders. In this case, there was consultation with the unions and employer organisations- they were all consulted- and bipartisan support was obtained.

Similar legislation has been implemented in the building and construction industry and also in the contract cleaning industry of the ACT, which was used in the preparation of this particular piece of legislation. There will be oversight by an industry board with representation from employers and employee groups. As well, the chair and deputy chair will have financial, commercial, economic and management experience and the scheme will be funded by a levy paid by the employers equivalent to two per cent of the workers' wages. The other thing is the retrospective aspect of this legislation. It does go back five years, which is probably reasonable in the circumstances. Unfortunately, the person who saw me nearly four years ago now will lose some of that service. But overall I think it is a reasonable compromise. Certainly for the future, it will overcome the problems that that particular constituent of mine was confronted with. Again, I congratulate the minister, his office and departmental staff. I commend the bill to the House.

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