Senator BIRMINGHAM (South Australia—Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (12:36): I seek leave to move a motion relating to the government's management of its legislative program. Leave not granted. Senator BIRMINGHAM: Pursuant to the contingent notice standing in my name, I move: That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion in relation to the government's handling of its legislative program. I believe the motion is being circulated. Can I read the motion whilst it's being circulated? The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes. Senator BIRMINGHAM: The motion reads: That— (1) The Senate notes: a) the disastrous negotiations on the Financial Accountability Regime Bill 2022 and associated bills conducted by the Assistant Treasurer which plagued the financial industry with more uncertainty; and b) fundamental mistakes and miscalculations in the Regulatory Impact Statement to the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 demonstrate that the Albanese Labor Government is pursuing a rushed and chaotic approach instead of a proper and transparent approach for such extreme reforms. (2) A message be sent to the House of Representatives seeking its concurrence with paragraph (1) of this resolution. (3) The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 be referred to the Education and Employment Legislation Committee for inquiry and report on the first sitting day of 2023. What we have heard during the course of this week, during Senate question time, has been an endless litany from this government of failure to admit that the rushed approach to its extreme IR legislation is an approach riddled with mistakes and an approach that will have dire consequences for businesses, particularly small- and medium-sized businesses across the Australian economy. The mistakes in the regulatory impact statement of the government are such that it is clear this government has not done its homework on the IR bills that they are seeking to ram and rush through this parliament next week. The truth is they didn't take these reforms to an election. They didn't take them the Australian people. They didn't tell them upfront what they were going to do. This is a government that, instead, in its early days decided that it would try to drive through the parliament reforms that were not communicated and make sure that in doing so it was able to deliver for its union friends that which it wasn't game to tell the Australian people about beforehand. What we've heard is that the regulatory impact statement miscalculated elements of the costs to small and medium-sized businesses and, as every day has gone by, we understand that more and more costs will be racked up and applied to Australian small and medium-sized businesses as a result of the government's approach. We were told that, in miscalculating those costs, it was in part because they were based on a few google searches, it seems. These searches were of some of the most curious and unusual businesses that you could seek to base an economic analysis upon. Senator Scarr: Embarrassing! Senator BIRMINGHAM: It is indeed embarrassing, Senator Scarr. It's embarrassing and it might be funny that the government is relying upon shamans or dog-grooming services as an equation for the whole economy. Senator Cash: Magicians, dog-walkers. Senator BIRMINGHAM: Psychics or magicians—it might be funny if it weren't so serious in terms of the consequences of the government's legislation. The consequences of the government's legislation will be to see Australian businesses face costs and disruption—costs in terms of the regulatory impact, costs in terms of negotiating, disruption in terms of the increased strike action—and be forced to act in ways that are not analogous to the needs of their individual enterprise or business. Senator Duniam: Jobs will be lost. Senator BIRMINGHAM: The consequences of those higher costs, higher strikes, more disruption will be, as Senator Duniam said, lost jobs. There will be fewer jobs in the Australian economy and higher costs for businesses. Contrary to what the government claims, it's not going to help productivity. It's going to hurt productivity when you've got businesses tied up in red tape and dealing with strikes. Productivity will go down and costs will go up. Will that help or hurt inflation? It will drive inflation and it will make a difficult situation, a real problem, even worse. The government's actions will make the problem worse. They should be listening to the Reserve Bank. They should be listening to the experts. They should be listening to any business across the country, not just as I've heard in this chamber this week but, remarkably, in the other place. When the Minister for Small Business was asked to name one small business—just one—who supported the government's extreme IR bills, guess what? She couldn't name even one—not even one. As if the chaos from the hapless management of the industrials relations built by the government isn't bad enough, we've been exposed in recent days to the work of the Assistant Treasurer and the way he is conducting his negotiations on the financial accountability regime bill. He seems to be changing position on that bill on a daily basis and doing it all through the media. One day there are new fines, the next day those fines are being taken away. Where is the certainty for Australian business? Where is the certainty for Australian investors? What on earth is this government doing? Well, they're making these mistakes because of the undue haste and because they are dancing to the tune of their union masters. That's why these mistakes are happening. The IR bill is no doubt full of other mistakes that are yet to be exposed because of the rushed approach. The financial services bill is also being changed on a day-to-day basis because the government is dancing to the tune of others. It's trying to twist around to make sure it keeps the unions happy and the industry super funds happy. They're telling them to go harder, go faster on these reforms. But they're not doing their homework and so not getting it right, and as a consequence Australians are going to face higher costs, fewer jobs, a weaker economy. And we won't stand for it.