The Albanese government is facing a standoff with David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie over its industrial relations legislation after the two influential crossbenchers successfully passed four private members’ bills in the Senate.
On Thursday the Senate unanimously passed the bills containing the uncontroversial elements of Labor’s closing loopholes legislation relating to discrimination, small business redundancies, asbestos, and work health and safety.
Labor has insisted on passing the industrial relations legislation in full and refused to split the bill. The workplace relations minister and leader of the House of Representatives, Tony Burke, is now refusing to guarantee the four bills a vote in the house, which Pocock labelled “extraordinary” and Lambie said was “really stupid”.
Labor and unions argue that the entire industrial relations bill is urgent, so workers should not wait until next year for the passage of measures toughening industrial manslaughter laws and guaranteeing minimum conditions in the gig economy.
But employer groups and the Coalition applauded Pocock and Lambie, and will now seek to press their advantage with a motion from the shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, that guarantees a Senate inquiry into the main bill will not report until 1 February.
The closing loopholes legislation contains contentious reforms such as so-called “same job, same pay” in the labour hire industry and minimum standards in the gig economy that have been the subject of a fierce employer advertising campaign and are opposed by the Coalition.
Pocock and Lambie’s bills, first revealed by Guardian Australia in September, propose to accelerate changes including banning discrimination against employees experiencing family and domestic violence and improving access to workers’ compensation for first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder in the ACT.
On Thursday, the Senate voted unanimously to pass the four bills. Labor’s Murray Watt explained that the government supported them and criticised the Coalition for “crocodile tears” over the urgency of changes they failed to enact in nine years in government.
Lambie told reporters in Canberra that Labor should never have put all the measures in one “monster” bill.
The Tasmanian senator and Pocock suggested the bills passing the lower house was a formality and there was no prospect of the government refusing a vote.
“They would be really, really stupid to do that before Christmas,” Lambie said. “That would not be a smart way to play politics. It was a stupid way they did it in the first place.
“Surely they couldn’t be dumber, dumb and dumber, surely?”
Pocock said it would be “extraordinary” if Labor stood in the way of their own legislation.
Burke said the provisions in the private bills “are already contained within government legislation that is currently before the house”.
“The government will continue to pursue its own legislation to protect workers and lift wages,” he said. “It’s strange the Senate passed these provisions without waiting for its own committee to report on them, particularly given the same senators who voted for them have repeatedly stressed the sanctity of the committee process.
“The government has never voted to delay any of these measures. We want them all passed as soon as possible.”
On the prospects of the main bill, Pocock said there was still a “huge amount of work” that needed to be done, with Senate inquiry hearings to run into January and government amendments expected in the lower house.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions president, Michele O’Neil, said the “whole bill is urgent”.
“It’s a simple choice,” she told reporters. “It’s a choice between working people and big business: whose side are you on?”
Labor will need the Greens, and either Pocock and Lidia Thorpe or Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell to pass the final bill.
