Senator ALLISON (9:35 AM) —by leave—I move:

(1) Clause 8, page 6 (line 11), omit "This", substitute "Subject to subsection 20(1A), this".

(2) Clause 20, page 12 (after line 7), after subclause (1), insert:

(1A) An Agency Head must not enter into an Australian Workplace Agreement, within the meaning of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 , with an APS employee.

(1B) The regulations may prescribe exemptions from the requirement set out in subsection (1A), in relation to particular categories of APS employees.

Note: For example, a particular category of APS employees could include "SES employees of the X Agency".

My amendments, as I indicated during second reading speeches, do allow disallowable regulations to determine that certain categories of employees are appropriate to become the subject of Australian workplace agreements, but they ensure that those determinations are reviewable by the parliament.

We think that there is little doubt that AWAs can lead to patronage and cronyism and, of course, it is usually women who lose out under such arrangements, as Senator Margetts pointed out. There is a large gap between executive levels and those further down the hierarchy. This has increased in industry and it is a trend we do not want to see emerge in the public service as well.

I put these amendments again for all of the reasons that I have previously mentioned and recommend them to the Senate.