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Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Towards Transparency) Bill 2013

Introduced into the House of Representatives on 11 February 2013
By: Mr Abbott MP

Summary of committee view

1.1        As this bill is identical in terms to the bill introduced into the Senate by Senator Abetz on 27 November 2012, the committee refers to its comments in its First Report of 2013 in relation to that bill.

Overview

1.2        This bill seeks to amend the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 to increase financial transparency and accountability by aligning the relevant obligations of registered organisations (including trade unions) to those that apply to corporations under the Corporations Act 2001, in particular:

• requiring full reports to be lodged with Fair Work Australia;
• making it an offence for officers who do not act in good faith or who misuse their position;
• increasing penalties for existing offences; and
• making it a criminal offence for an organisation, branch, officer or employee not to comply with an applicable court order.

Compatibility with human rights

1.3        This bill is identical to the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Towards Transparency) Bill 2012 introduced into the Senate by Senator Abetz on 27 November 2012. The committee's comments on that bill were set out in its First Report of 2013.[1]

1.4        The explanatory memorandum contains a free-standing statement of compatibility, which states that the bill ‘does not engage any of the applicable rights or freedoms as listed in the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011’ and is therefore ‘compatible with human rights as it does not raise any human rights issues.’

1.5        As noted in the committee's previous comments on the identical bill introduced by Senator Abetz, insofar as the bill proposes to regulate certain trade unions by imposing duties on union officials and providing that certain conduct constitutes a criminal offence, it engages the right of trade unions in article 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

1.6                 The committee intends to write to the Leader of the Opposition to draw to his attention the comments raised in relation to the identical bill introduced by Senator Abetz as set out in its First Report of 2013.

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