Senator CASH (Western Australia—Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Employment and Minister for Women) (18:28): I thank all senators for their contributions to this debate on the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017. It is a very important debate, and, Senator Roberts, I do look forward to hearing the rest of your contribution during the committee stage, as I'm sure you know that you will have more than enough opportunities to present your views to the chamber in relation to the bill once the second reading vote has been taken. I want to register my thanks to the many organisations and individuals who took the time to make a submission to the inquiry into this bill or to other inquiries over recent times that have looked at the issues we are considering. We know that the majority of employers do the right thing in Australia. The Fair Work Act does, however, need to be strengthened to further and better protect vulnerable workers. Our bill seeks to do that by (a) introducing a higher scale of penalties for serious contraventions of prescribed workplace laws; (b) increasing penalties for record-keeping failures; (c) introducing new provisions to make franchisors and holding companies responsible for breaches of the Fair Work Act in their networks in certain circumstances; (d) expressly prohibiting employers from unreasonably requiring their employees to make payments; and (e) strengthening the evidence-gathering powers of the Fair Work Ombudsman to ensure that the exploitation of vulnerable workers and other serious contraventions of the Fair Work Act can be properly investigated. Despite the speeches of those opposite in relation to this bill, may I remind senators of the record of the Labor opposition when they were in government when it came to protecting vulnerable workers: in the six years that Labor were in office, they did nothing. They did nothing to strengthen the protections for vulnerable workers. Instead, what they did do—and, Senator Roberts, you may find this of interest—is that they reduced the funding and the staffing levels of the Fair Work Ombudsman, the regulator that is there to assist the workers. When in government, the current Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, who was the relevant minister at the time, slashed funding to the Fair Work Ombudsman by 17 per cent. That's right: he slashed funding to the Fair Work Ombudsman by 17 per cent, from $150 million down to $124 million. When in government, again, the current Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, who was the relevant minister— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Minister, may I remind you to refer to members in the other place by their correct title. It would be Mr Bill Shorten. Senator CASH: So the current Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you. Senator CASH: cut their staff by 20 per cent. Just to refer again for the Hansard record, the current Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten, when he was the relevant minister in government, cut the staff of the Fair Work Ombudsman by 20 per cent. So there were 900 staff of the Fair Work Ombudsman when the current Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten, came into office as the relevant minister, and Mr Bill Shorten, the current Leader of the Opposition, when he was the relevant minister, slashed the number of staff down to 723. So we have those on the other side giving speeches in relation to this bill but failing to recognise that, when they had the opportunity to do something, in six years they did nothing to positively protect vulnerable workers. But what they did do—thank you, Madam Deputy President, for your instruction—is that the current Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten, when he was the relevant minister, slashed the funding to the Fair Work Ombudsman by 17 per cent, from $150 million to $124 million. And just a reminder—he also cut the Fair Work Ombudsman's staff by 20 per cent, from 900 down to 723. Then, of course, we have Labor's belated announcement of a worker exploitation policy at the end of 2016 which, when you actually read it, failed to deal with the key instances of exploitation. In fact, when you actually review their worker exploitation policy, it in fact exempted small business from higher penalties, so the actual effect of what their policy would have been was that most 7-Eleven franchises would not have been affected. The legislation that is currently before the House, which we are debating, builds on the Turnbull government's record of protecting vulnerable workers, including establishing a migrant workers task force chaired by Professor Allan Fels to address the range of issues that relate to the exploitation of vulnerable workers and advise the government on improvements in law, law enforcement and investigation and other practical measures to more quickly identify and rectify cases of exploitation. The task force will continue to consult broadly with key stakeholders to better understand the issues and advise government on what changes are required to the law in this regard. We have also boosted funding to the Fair Work Ombudsman by $20 million to ensure that the regulator has the resources to investigate and prosecute employers who exploit workers. We also established Taskforce Cadena in June 2015. This is a joint task force between the Australian Border Force and the Fair Work Ombudsman to target and disrupt criminals organising visa fraud, illegal work and the exploitation of foreign workers. We also changed the law to require a valid pay slip as proof of paid work before a second working holiday visa will be granted to a temporary migrant worker. That's something that the former Labor government did not do. We also outlawed payments to sponsors of foreign workers through making it a criminal offence for employers and visa applicants to solicit or receive payment in return for visa sponsorship. And we are funding enforcement bodies to ensure that employers comply with their obligations as sponsors of skilled visa holders. The legislation that we currently have before us builds on this body of work. Obviously, the bill responds to a number of high-profile cases involving well-known franchise businesses. It introduces new provisions to hold franchisors and holding companies responsible for payment related contraventions of the Fair Work Act by their franchisees or subsidiaries, where they knew, or ought reasonably to have known, of the contraventions and failed to take reasonable steps to prevent them. The laws will apply if the franchisor has a significant degree of influence or control over the franchisee entity's affairs and the franchisee is substantially or maturely associated with the franchise brand. As employers, franchisees and subsidiaries remain responsible for their own wages bill. Any franchisor or holding company ordered to compensate franchisee workers under the new provisions will be entitled to recover this amount from the franchisee responsible for the underpayments. What is appropriate in any particular case will depend on the size, resources and control exercised by a particular business and what steps they were already taking to encourage compliance with the law within their corporate networks. In many cases, existing measures will be sufficient and there will be no need to take any further measures. But the fundamental principle should always apply: the employer itself must bear responsibility for ensuring its employees are paid lawfully, and an employer should not be able to shirk this responsibility by handballing it to someone else in the supply chain. In terms of the Fair Work Ombudsman, the bill will also give the Fair Work Ombudsman new evidence-gathering powers similar to those already available to corporate regulators such as ASIC and the ACCC. This is in response to advice from the Fair Work Ombudsman that it has not been able to prosecute certain cases of serious noncompliance when records don't exist or have been destroyed and witnesses are not willing to cooperate. These powers will ensure that the worst wrongdoers can now be held to account, as they should be. The new powers will enable the Fair Work Ombudsman to issue an FWO notice to compel a person to provide information or documents, or to attend an interview. The powers will be particularly important in cases where no relevant documents appear to be available and an investigation has stalled. The Fair Work Ombudsman will have the power to issue such a notice if they reasonably believe a person has information or documents relevant to an investigation, or is capable of giving evidence that is relevant to an investigation. To complement these new powers, the bill will also expressly prohibit anyone from hindering or obstructing a Fair Work Ombudsman inspector, or giving the Fair Work Ombudsman false or misleading information or documents. I also thank the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee for their report and its recommendation that the bill be passed. I again thank all senators for their valuable contribution to this debate, and I commend the bill to the Senate. The PRESIDENT: The question is that the bill be now read a second time. Bill read a second time.