Closing the Loopholes Bill puts farmer safety at risk

Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud said new Closing the Loopholes legislation could
put farmer safety and biosecurity at risk by giving unions the right to enter farms
unannounced.
Mr Littleproud said he was alarmed at the potential changes, which not only intruded on
privacy and the personal safety of farmers, but also had animal welfare implications.
It comes as the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill 2023 comes
up for debate in the Senate this week in Parliament.
The second tranche of the Bill grants unions more entry rights into workplaces including
farms.
Mr Littleproud said The Nationals would not be able to support legislation which
emboldened unions with additional power to talk to workers and conduct snap inspections
of pay records or properties without notice.
“These changes would give unions enhanced rights to enter farms unannounced, which is
mind boggling and defies common sense,” Mr Littleproud said.
“The farm is often the family home for many Australians. This is about safety and privacy, as
well as animal welfare and biosecurity risk.
“Any unintended consequences leading to an outbreak of a disease will cause lower food
supply and higher food prices – this is the last thing Australian families need in the middle of
a cost-of-living crisis.”
Organic poultry farmer Sarah Sterns, who has 6000 chickens on her Kilkivan-based farm,
said her smaller, family-based farm was very much also a private property.
“We live and work on the same premise so that would be a huge risk to our privacy,” Sarah
said.
“I am not comfortable with the idea at all. Because we are organic and free range, we
cannot afford to have people on our farm, who are unfamiliar with the risk of viruses
spreading.
“Being organic, we can’t use antibiotics or drugs so it would have an enormous impact if
that happened, it would wipe out the farm.”
Mr Littleproud added Labor also needs to address the subjectivity and ambiguity around
their new definition of ‘casual’ in their proposed legislation, which was creating too much
risk for farmers.
“The changes mean that an employee will only be ‘casual’ if there’s no ‘firm advanced
commitment to continuing and indefinite work’, founded on mutual understanding, which is
difficult when it comes to agriculture,” Mr Littleproud said.
“A casual employee will also have the right to convert to permanent employment after six
months of employment, if the employee believes their status no longer meets the definition
of ‘casual’. In other words, the casual employee, not the employer, gets to choose their own
employment status.
“Labor is creating a mess of this and making it hard for farmers, but it’s families who will pay
for it at the checkout.”