Shadow Veterans Affairs Minister Barnaby Joyce has slammed the Labor government for being more interested in being “entertaining to their backbench than running the country” after they showed their “incompetence again” on the IR bill.
Bosses who breach an order to stop after-hours contact can now face fines and imprisonment after the Greens snuck an avenue for criminal punishment into the new right-to-disconnect legislation.
The Albanese government attempted to pass last-minute amendments after legal advice informed them of the potential for criminal penalties.
The Coalition refused to grant leave, and the bill was passed through the Senate with criminal penalty provisions.
“Look at the IR bill – incompetence again,” Mr Joyce told Sky News Australia.
“They passed an amendment which would mean if you, as a boss, made a call to your worker after hours, you could go to jail, and then they read what they just voted for and went ‘oh no’.
“This is just incompetence.
“You can’t trust them, and they’re more interested in being entertaining to their backbench than running the country, and that is a problem.”