WorkChoices - Senate Inquiry

Senate Inquiry

An token inquiry into the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Bill 2005 was held by the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee, to which the Bill was referred once it was introduced into the House of Representatives.

Five days were allowed for submissions to be made to the committee, with the closing date being 9 November 2005. Five days of hearings were scheduled to be held at Parliament House in Canberra commencing 14 November with the committee reporting to the Senate on 22 November.

This decision to have a rather short inquiry was criticised by Labor, who claimed that it was an attempt by the Government to avoid proper scrutiny of the Bill.

By November, the Senate had received more than 4,500 submissions, of which only 173 were published on the website. The committee did not individually acknowledge and publish all submissions, due to the large number of submissions, at least partially caused by ACTU's campaign against Work Choices, which included setting up a form on its website by which people could make a submission.

On 14 November the Senate Inquiry began its five-day hearing – in which only a fraction of the submissions were heard – with the submissions of State and Territory Industrial Relations Ministers and representatives. The representatives were each allowed only seven minutes to address the Inquiry, during which they criticised the package as being unconstitutional and undermining the rights and conditions of workers.

The Office of the Employment Advocate, now known as the Workplace Authority, conducted a survey ending in September 2006 which showed the following results with respect to 'protected' conditions lost in Work Choices legislation: of all AWAs sampled, 88 percent abolished or 'modified' overtime rates; 89 percent of AWAs either abolished or 'modified' shiftwork loading; 91 percent abolished or 'modified' monetary allowances; 85 percent abolished or 'modified incentive payments; 82 percent abolished or 'modified' public holiday payments; and 83 percent abolished or 'modified' rest breaks. In each of these cases conditions were more often abolished than modified, and all modifications represented decreases in conditions. Lastly, though 66 percent of AWAs resulted in wage increases, 52 percent of these increases were unquantified or not guaranteed.