“This Bill is being sold as a modest administrative tidy-up of the Fair Work Commission. It is not. 

“It contains wide-ranging reforms with significant implications for the residential construction industry, procurement frameworks, workforce costs and the capacity of builders to deliver the homes Australians need.

“The Federal Government is making a bad habit of tabling substantial workplace relations reforms with no notice, no industry engagement and no consideration of cumulative impact.

“This is particularly concerning given the large number of legislative reviews currently underway that will impose future workplace relations reforms. 

“HIA’s immediate concerns with this Bill are numerous.

“The Bill effectively fast-tracks the Commonwealth’s Secure Australian Jobs Code, which is still in the consultation and development phase and for which industry raised numerous concerns. 

“Further, while the reforms in the Bill are presented as routine, the practical effect is to entrench enterprise bargaining as the only workplace arrangement the Government views as legitimate. 

“The Bill also proposes to loosen the threshold requirements for unfair dismissal and general protections applications before the Fair Work Commission. Lowering the evidentiary bar for applications will increase the volume of speculative claims and drive-up compliance and legal costs for small businesses.

“HIA is also concerned about the Bill’s changes to the high-income threshold for road transport contractors, granting a specially carved-out threshold to allow access to Fair Work protections in one industry alone. If extended to construction, the ramifications for project costs and workforce management would be severe.

“HIA is not opposed to practical workplace relations reform, but we are opposed to reform that is rushed, opaque, and designed without input from those who will carry its costs most, being the small and medium-sized businesses.

“The Government has an ambitious housing supply target. Every piece of policy that increases cost, uncertainty or administrative burden on residential builders moves that target further out of reach. 

“HIA calls for this Bill to be referred to a parliamentary committee for proper scrutiny, with meaningful timeframes for industry and community feedback and public hearings.

This should also be deferred until the findings and government responses to other concurrent reviews currently underway have been handed down. The residential building sector deserves nothing less,” concluded Mr Collins.

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