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Explanation from Bruce Billson on bill to amend Paid Parental leave to stop red tape for small business

Received by ICA 23 February 2011



As discussed, my Private Member's Bill to stop the Gillard Government transferring the 'pay clerk' responsibility from the Family Assistance Office to all employers of eligible PPL recipients comes up for a vote in the House of Reps on Thursday. (24 Feb 2011)

The Coalition's PMB has earned overwhelming support from the small business community and employer organisations as a common-sense response to an unnecessary and unjustified impost and red-tape burden on employers to relieve the government of its administrative responsibilities from July 1. The Government's Small Business Minister and Minister Assisting the Minister for Deregulation, Senator Nick Sherry, has privately been telling business groups that he agrees with the Coalition's sensible proposal but like his predecessor, lost the 'internal argument'.

The govt-union deal to fit up employers with PPL 'pay clerk' obligations has been revealed by the ACTU's own statements. The ACTU is saying that my PMB needs to be opposed as the Govt approach is about helping along the industrial campaign to force up employer contributions to make up for the deficiencies in the Govt scheme.

This Govt-union pact will increase employment cost and compliance to the disadvantage of cask-strapped small businesses and the participation in the workforce of women of reproductive age. The Govt approach will increase the risk of discrimination against women who may be in a position to expand their family (according to the Prod Comm) and breaks a Gillard/Macklin/Plibersek promise not to do exactly what Labor is doing.

The vote on my PMB is on Thursday.

My PMB aims to have the Family Assistance office continue to administer scheme and make payments directly to eligible employees, rather than impose a new cost and compliance burden on employers, big and small.

The Government has been unable to offer a single credible and persuasive reason of the impost, relying of dubious claims about 'workforce attachment' and the image of the payments without offering any evidence to support these claims.

The Government falsely uses 'return to work data' that shows a person is more likely to return to work after an addition to the family to back its claims that am employers as 'paymasters' helps return rates. This is nonsense as it is the family-friendly nature, size and flexibility offered by the overwhelmingly large and government employers that have voluntarily provided PPL benefits that supports the higher return to work rates and not who undertakes the key strokes to see payments appear as an electronic payment entry in a eligible recipients bank statement.

Arguments about the 'image' of the payments not appearing as a payment from the Government or some kind of family welfare benefit are blown out of the the water by the extensive advertising campaign the Government continues to implement claiming credit for payments under the Government-determined PPL.

So if the reasons the government and unions are offering for forcing employers to administer the Government's scheme, regardless of capacity, are nonsense and unable to be supported by any evidence, what is the real justification?

The Gillard Labor Government has chosen 'aiding and abetting a union industrial campaign' over improving workplace opportunities for women and the reducing paid parental leave costs and compliance burdens employers face, particularly small businesses.

A secret internal union circular reveals that the true reason for the co-ordinated Labor/union attack on the commonsense Coalition proposal for the Family Assistance Office to continue to administer the Government's scheme is that it would "restrict union's capacity to improve and enforce PPL in workplaces" (ACTU circular No. 02/2011 17 to union affiliates 17 January 2011). http://community.rightsatwork.com.au/Blogs/RAW-News/February-2011/Its-time-to-unite-against-plans-to-undermine-paid-.aspx

All the Gillard Labor Government and union movement want to achieve by forcing the unnecessary and pointless 'PPL pay-clerk burden" onto all employers from July 1 is to make it easy for an industrial campaign to force all employers, big and small, to 'top up' the deficient Government parental leave scheme, regardless of their capacity to do so. This is despite warnings from the Productivity Commission warnings that "the biggest dangers of employer co-funding of paid parental leave is discrimination against women of reproductive ages and, in the shorter term, the financial pressures on cash-strapped employers" (Productivity Commission "Paid parental Leave Ð The Proposed Scheme" Report PP. 2.17-2.18).

The blatantly self-serving position of the Gillard Labor Government and union movement completely ignores that their actions are adding to the genuine risk of discrimination against women.

The Gillard Labor Government has ignored a chorus of calls from and small business people not to add the needless and pointless red tape and compliance burden imposed on employers under the Gillard Labor Government's paid parental leave scheme. Labor is doing exactly what it promised it wouldn't. In a joint media statement 'Maternity Leave' (below) with Jenny Macklin on 13 July 2007, Julia Gillard stated; Labor will not support a system that imposes additional financial burdens or administrative complexity on small businesses or in any way acts as a discouragement to the employment of women.

The Coalition's Private Member's Bill seeks to have the Government's Family Assistance Office continue its current role in administering the government-funded parental leave scheme and not force employers to handle payments and increased paper-work from July 1, will be voted upon of February 24.

If supported in the House of Representatives, our proposal has every chance of become law. Last time this common-sense and practical measure was considered, the Senate voted in favour of our plan to relieve employers, particularly small business people, of the unnecessary paid parental leave 'pay clerk' red tape and compliance burden. The men and women of Australia's small business sector work hard, take risks, and create jobs right across the economy and should not be burdened with unnecessary costs and red-tape with administering the Government's paid parental scheme.

The Hon Bruce Billson MP
Federal Member for Dunkley
Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy & Consumer Affairs