Questions without notice and ministers statements
Labour Hire Licensing Authority
David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:00): (997) My question is for the Minister for Industrial Relations and is related to the Victorian Labour Hire Authority. I have been contacted by a constituent who has experienced an incredibly extended delay in renewing his licence. In the Labour Hire Authority’s strategic plan the first item under their values statement says that they are responsive, and the first heading under their strategic priorities states ‘Create and maintain a fair and lawful labour hire industry’. The problem that my constituent has is that to review a decision at VCAT the authority actually has to make a decision. If the LHA simply investigates him forever, his business will be destroyed without the ability to seek a review. But the LHA annual reports do not list any performance measures against benchmarks for processing renewals. Can the minister confirm if there are any targets for processing licence applications or renewals and comment on how the LHA is performing against these benchmarks?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:01): I thank Mr Limbrick for his question and indeed his previous engagement with my office on this matter. Mr Limbrick, we are seeking advice in relation to the specifics of the matter that you have raised. We are currently doing labour hire reforms, and we will have a bill in October that is picking up on some of those matters. I think the feedback that you have provided and potentially what we learn from the case that you have presented may indeed inform some of those reforms. I would be very happy to keep you updated as that progresses.
David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:02): I thank the minister for that response and also for the engagement on that particular issue. The Labour Hire Licensing Act had a statutory review last year, as the minister mentioned, with the government making various commitments to implementing reforms. Many of the recommendations and the government’s response and commitments relate to the construction sector, where we have seen huge problems with infiltration of organised crime, frequently involving labour hire businesses – and let us hope that any reforms that the government proposes will assist in cleaning up this mess. The Libertarian Party do not believe that creating more regulatory authorities and red tape is the answer to productivity or bad behaviour, but when they do exist, they should be fair and efficient. Right now it is difficult to see if this is the case or not. Without a clearly defined and published expectation on how long things should reasonably take, there is no way for the public to look at the LHA and assess whether they are achieving this. Given that the government has already committed to amendments to the act, will the minister commit to ensuring that there are clear benchmarks and reporting on them in the annual report?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:03): I thank Mr Limbrick for his question and for his engagement on this issue. We will consider the matters that Mr Limbrick has raised, because they have merit, and I am very happy to look at them.