Senator XENOPHON (South Australia) (18:22): I would like to make a brief second reading contribution in relation to the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017. I know that I'll have more opportunities when the bill goes into committee stage, assuming it gets through the second reading stage, as I believe it will, given the number of amendments that the opposition has in respect of the bill. In broad terms, the genesis of this bill arose from the investigative journalism of Adele Ferguson, primarily, and others, who exposed the way that 7-Eleven employees were treated and the role of the franchisor in respect of that—those stories of abuse, if you like. People were not being paid their proper wages under a business model that seemed to work only if employees were underpaid. It has been described as a scandal—looming as the biggest case of wage fraud in Australian corporate history—and has triggered the government to bring forward the bill. There is no question that the trigger for the bill has been the 7-Eleven scandal and the need to strengthen laws in respect of that and to have a chain of responsibility between franchisors and franchisees. The bill contains a number of elements in relation to increasing penalties and the scope of the offences, including the chain of responsibility between the franchisor and the franchisee. That is important, particularly because there is a close contractual relationship between the franchisee and franchisor. The bill contains bans on cashbacks, which are an artifice or construct to circumvent the underpayment of wages. There are also the powers of the ombudsman to get documents to do proper investigations and to get the necessary material in order to have appropriate investigations that, if need be, may well lead to prosecutions. The issues with this bill are in respect of a number of amendments that the opposition is moving to broaden the scope of the bill. These are matters where I want to participate in the committee stage and ask the opposition and the government about that. I'm concerned that some of those amendments may be too broad at this stage in the context of this bill, and I have had discussions with Peter Strong from the Council of Small Business Australia, who have some concerns about some aspects of those amendments of the opposition. So these are matters that we need to explore in the committee stages. I want to get this bill through because it does have a high scale of penalties for serious contraventions. It does have increased penalties for record-keeping failures. It makes franchisors and holding companies responsible for underpayments by their franchisees or subsidiaries. I know there have been a number of key stakeholders who have been concerned about this, but I believe that these powers are necessary to remedy the awful situation that 7-Eleven employees were found in and that others might find themselves in. We need to stamp that out. This would also expressly prohibit employers from unreasonably requiring their employees to make payments—that is, demanding that a proportion of their wages be repaid in cash. These cashback payments are a rort. It's also important to strengthen the evidence-gathering powers of the Fair Work Ombudsman so that there can be appropriate and thorough investigations. So I think the issue here is not whether the elements of the bill are good—I think they overall are robust and good—but to what extent we support ALP amendments at this stage. To what extent do we extend the reach of the bill, or should that be dealt with in the context of other legislation? If it gets into the committee stage, I expect it will. I look forward to there being a robust committee stage so that these issues can be properly ventilated. I know that Senator Cameron, who has been championing this for the opposition, has the conduct of this in this place as with other pieces of industrial relations legislation, and we will expect nothing less than a very robust prosecution of those amendments and questioning of the government from him. I'm looking forward to the committee stage. I'm not sure if the minister is looking forward to it as much as Senator Cameron is looking forward to the committee stage, but I think it's important that we do this thoroughly, and here's an opportunity to do so.