Senator MARGETTS(6.04 p.m.) —The Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Bill makes a series of amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 in relation to areas such as certified agreements, Australian workplace agreements, the Employment Advocate, the no-disadvantage test, termination of employment, freedom of association and union disamalgamation. I will not be making detailed comments on all of these issues in my second reading contribution, but I would like to express my concern at the general trend to amend this already flawed legislation by tipping the scales even further in favour of employers.

In my home state of Western Australia we have seen the various waves of so-called reform being pushed through the state parlia ment by Minister Kierath, including the most recent farce when the government went to extreme lengths to pass its legislation before the new legislative councillors took their seats and the government lost control of the Legislative Council for the first time in 100 years. I suspect that this bill is just the first of a series of federal waves which will continue to erode the beachhead of already eroded worker protections.

The changing rules applying to the role and powers of the Employment Advocate are one aspect that is of great concern. I strongly opposed the creation of this position in the 1996 bill because I felt it was designed more as an Employer Advocate and I have not changed my position. I believe that those in Western Australia who have already been affected will certainly justify that.

The amendments before us in this bill in large part add to my concerns and certainly do not provide any of the protections for workers generally or special categories of workers such as migrant women, the disabled, or young people that I attempted to have inserted during the committee stage of the Workplace Relations Bill in late 1996. What the government fails to acknowledge in this bill and in the Workplace Relations Act itself is that there is a massive difference in the relative negotiating power of employers and employees, particularly as we move into Minister Reith's brand new world of individual, take-it-or-leave-it, contract negotiation.

I would like to remind the Senate of some comments that I made in this place on 30 September 1997 in relation to a ministerial statement by Minister Reith on the topic of small business. In that statement, he acknowledged the fact that I agree with him that small business operators were often disadvantaged in their dealings with big business. Accordingly, the minister was announcing that he would introduce amendments to the Trade Practices Act that would give protection to small business in its commercial dealings with big business.

I applaud that move, but I have to wonder why the minister—who, of course, also has responsibility for industrial relations—does not also consider the need for protection of employees in their contract negotiations with employers. We know that it is a take it or leave it system that the government is enforcing.

I will leave any detailed comments to the committee stage of the bill, but I will indicate here that I will oppose many of the clauses in the bill. I will most likely oppose the bill in its entirety, given the likely outcome of the voting on the amendments before us.