Minimum Income Thresholds for Road Transport Contractors
Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026
House of Representatives
Senate
Assent
Topics
contractor pay employment rights labor disputes road transport unfair dismissal workplace relations
Introduced by: The Hon Amanda Rishworth MP (ALP)
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
The Debate
What different members said when this bill was debated:
Amanda Rishworth ALP
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The government’s first term workplace reforms were the most significant since the Fair Work Act commenced almost 17 years ago. These reforms have delivered on our objectives to promote job security and gender equality, get wages moving, improve safety, and address loopholes that have undermined fairness in the workplace.”
Dan Tehan LIB
“This bill should really be called ’Bringing the CFMEU to Canberra’, because that is what this bill is all about, and the deceitful and dishonest way the government is ramming this bill through is an utter disgrace. It will have enormous consequences for all major federal government procurement processes. What it will mean is we will see cost blowouts on all of those.”
“In a surprising moment in this place, the member for Wannon opposes legislation that fundamentally is focused on workplace relations reform. What a shocker! And it’s so unsurprising in actual fact because the member for Wannon voted against same job, same pay. He reckons that, if you’re working side-by-side, you shouldn’t be getting paid the same.”
Leon Rebello LNP
“It gives me great pleasure to speak after that ideological sermon that we had to just witness here from the former secretary of the Australian Labor Party in Queensland. Ms Campbell: The ideology of treating workers well? Mr REBELLO: What that ideological sermon failed to do was speak about half of this bill, the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No.”
Tom French ALP
“I rise in support of the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. This bill makes practical improvements to the workplace relations framework.”
Ms McKENZIE
“I rise to speak on the government’s Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. The bill amends the now tome-like Fair Work Act 2009, the Independent Contractors Act 2006 and the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009.”
Madonna Jarrett ALP
“My dad got up every morning and was at work by seven or 7.30 at the latest. He worked overtime. He was on call regularly, and quite often he got home when I was going to school. He worked hard. When he got home he told stories of his day. Sometimes maybe there was an injury; maybe there was a fight with the boss. More often than not it was a great day doing what he loved: being a sparky.”
Kate Chaney IND
“I rise to speak on the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. This bill bundles together measures with very different impacts. It gives the Fair Work Commission tools to manage a rising tide of applications, a tide now driven in part by paid agents and by artificial intelligence generating claims at volume.”
Helen Haines IND
“I second the member for Curtin’s amendment, and I have some brief remarks. Like the member for Curtin, I support many aspects of the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026, including changes to allow the Fair Work Commission to operate more efficiently and establishing a new high-income threshold for road transport contractors.”
Carina Garland ALP
“I think we should all be very proud of our enterprise bargaining system in Australia, which has provided for good outcomes for workers and for employers, and we should do what we can to defend this important system.”
Allegra Spender IND
“The Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026 makes several changes to the Fair Work Act and related legislation. Most I support; one I specifically do not. This bill ensures road transport contractors can access workplace protections through a new industry-specific high-income threshold that reflects their actual cost structure.”
Ash Ambihaipahar ALP
“I rise to speak in support of the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026, and I do so with a particular sense of purpose. Before I came to this place, I spent more than 10 years in the workplace relations and employment law trenches.”
Anne Webster NAT
“At a time when Australia faces clear productivity challenges, this parliament should be asking a simple question of every piece of legislation—will it lift productivity or will it lower it? Productivity is not an abstract economic concept.”
Jo Briskey ALP
“A secure job changes everything. It is the difference between building a life and just getting by. It is what lets someone take out a mortgage without laying awake over it or decide that it’s finally the right time to start a family. When your job is secure, you stop bracing for next month. You can actually plan for it. This is what people want.”
“I rise to speak in support of the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. This bill is about making our workplace system work better. It’s about fairness, it’s about secure jobs, and it’s about sure making the system works for workers and employers alike.”
Andrew Wallace LNP
“I rise with great interest in the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026, as someone who made a living out of the construction sector for 35-odd years before I came into this place, as a carpenter and joiner, as a registered builder and as a construction lawyer.”
Mary Aldred LIB
“In my remarks—and I don’t intend to take my full allocated time—I want to concentrate on a couple of key areas, particularly as a Victorian who’s very concerned about the rife CFMEU corruption in my state and the impact that that is having not just on our level of debt but on our level of government integrity and on small and family operated businesses not just in Melbourne but across regional Vic…”
Sam Birrell NAT
“I, too, rise to speak on the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. Like so many pieces of legislation, the name defies what’s actually in the bill. We support sensible reforms that help the Fair Work Commission to do its job more effectively.”
Tom Venning LIB
“Here is more legislation from this Labor government. The Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026 is the government’s response to a surging backlog at the Fair Work Commission. Officially, it’s about the concept of cooperative workplaces. But let us be honest—beneath these necessary administrative fixes lies a union agenda.”
“There’s a lot not to like about this bill, and you can tell there’s a lot not to like about a bill when no Labor member has their name on the present speaker’s list to defend the bill, to spruik the bill or to promote the bill. And I ask: why? Where are the Labor members when it comes to talking about the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026?”
Tim Ayres ALP
“I move: That these bills be now read a second time. I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted. The speeches read as follows— CUSTOMS TARIFF AMENDMENT (INCORPORATION OF PROPOSALS) BILL (NO. 1) 2026 The Customs Tariff Amendment (Incorporation of Proposals) Bill (No.”
Jane Hume LIB
“I rise to speak on the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. This bill is really a tale of two stories, and the first deserves our support, but the second story deserves serious condemnation.”
Helen Polley ALP
“I rise to speak in support of the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. This is an important bill, a practical bill and, above all, a bill that continues the work of building a fairer, safer and more productive economy for working Australians. It is a bill I’m proud of, as a Labor senator here in this place.”
Maria Kovacic LIB
“The coalition supports practical reforms that help the Fair Work Commission deal with its workload, but we do not support the enterprise bargaining procurement changes. The government should not be using sensible Fair Work Commission reforms as a cover for passing unrelated procurement changes—again, as is the hallmark of this government, another attempt under the cover of darkness.”