Tuesday, 20 September 2022

Independent contractors

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:00): (2131) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Industrial Relations. In December last year the Labor government introduced its fair conduct and accountability standards—its latest scheme to undermine the Victorian economy, by proposing to impose stringent regulations on the use of independent contractors. With both the federal and state legislative and executive branches of government now dominated by the political wing of the trade union movement, it seems that only one branch of governance remains sensible on industrial relations in this country—the judiciary.

In February this year the High Court handed down two concurrent decisions in CFMMEU v. Personnel Contracting and ZG Operations Pty Ltd v. Jamsek. In those judgements the High Court clearly delineated the difference between an employee and an independent contractor. Contrary to the union movement’s arguments, the court stated:

The employment relationship with which the common law is concerned must be a legal relationship. It is not a social or psychological concept like friendship.

As such the court held that whether a worker is an employee depends ultimately on the contract upon which the business has engaged them—not on abstract notions about the reality of the relationship between the parties, as proposed by the unions. This was a significant victory for common sense but more importantly for business certainty and confidence, given that thousands of businesses across this state engage independent contractors for very legitimate reasons and should not be at risk of liability for considerable employee entitlements or prosecution under this government’s oppressive wage theft legislation.

Now Victorian Labor’s friends up in Canberra want to throw this certainty into chaos by proposing to regulate on employee-like forms of work and integrate them into the employment-based industrial relations system. The finer details of this proposal are yet to be seen, but rest assured they will not be good, with big unions now dictating the policy of the Commonwealth. At minimum the plan to unnecessarily regulate legitimate forms of independent contracting should not be duplicated at both the state and federal levels. Given that the Commonwealth government is now proceeding with their own policy, I call on the minister to abandon any further development of the fair conduct and accountability standards, which I would remind Minister Pallas was based on a recommendation that called for the Commonwealth to lead in this space, not for a rogue state government to do so.