A Review of the Closing Loopholes legislation – a series of amendments to the Fair Work Act in 2023-24 – is being undertaken to: consider whether the operation of the amendments is appropriate and effective; identify any unintended consequences of the amendments; and consider whether further amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009, or any other legislation, are necessary to improve the operation of the amendments or rectify any unintended consequences that are identified.
After meeting with the Reviewer, the Department and other researchers, we lodged this submission to the Review (number 66 accepted by the Review). Our assessment was that, overall, the operation of the amendments was appropriate and effective, but that further amendments were necessary to ensure that the intent of the legislation was achieved. Closing Loopholes was succeeding in reducing the imbalance, but there were some inadequacies in the approach.
Our research showed that the casual employment and labour hire provisions appeared to be reducing insecurity, by reducing the incidence of casual employment and lower-paying labour hire work, but it seems likely that many casuals who want permanency will still lack it and that too many Australian workers will continue to be unable to access leave entitlements.
The guidance to the Fair Work Commission needed to be more precise in ensuring that there were comparable protections for employees and for employee-like workers. Too many vulnerable workers may be excluded from the protections afforded through the employee-like provisions of Closing Loopholes. All employees, not just workers in road transport, need to be able to be protected from decisions elsewhere in contractual chains that put unfair pressures on their employers to cut conditions and prevent them from meeting their obligations under industrial instruments.
We also identified some problems arising from the logic of Closing Loopholes that were outside of the capacity of federal industrial relations legislation to solve, particularly in the area of workers’ compensation.
Our submission also encompassed the issue of workplace delegates rights, explicitly affected by the legislation, and the question of productivity.
The Inquiry is due to lodge preliminary findings and draft recommendations to the Minister by 15 May 2026, and its final report on 15 June 2026.