I support the Portable Long Service Leave Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. One of the many reasons I wanted to be elected to represent my electorate and working families across New South Wales is to make a difference in people's lives. A current issue is breaks in service when contracts are up for renewal. Some members of unions have been saying to me for many years that they have had jobs that are up for tender and that portable long service leave will give them more stability. Effie from the Australian Services Union said that portable long service leave will give her members more freedom.

Providing portable long service leave for everybody in New South Wales is pivotal. The Long Service Corporation administers portable long service leave schemes in New South Wales for the building and construction industry and the contract cleaning industry. These schemes were established through the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Act [BCI Act] and the Contract Cleaning Industry (Portable Long Service Leave Scheme) Act [CCI Act]. The two schemes provide benefits for thousands of workers each year. In 2022-23, for the BCI Act and the CCI Act, respectively, there were 495,003 and 121,996 registered workers, 38,491 and 1,196 registered employers, $109.45 million and $4 million paid in benefits, and $175.44 million and $9.582 million collected as levies.

The New South Wales Government has received legal advice that there is a constitutional issue preventing both portable long service leave schemes from applying to Commonwealth places in New South Wales. Workers are impacted in places such as Western Sydney international airport and military bases. Work conducted at Commonwealth places currently does not count towards portable entitlements in both schemes. That is because the New South Wales legislation has the effect of imposing a tax and cannot apply of its own force to Commonwealth places in New South Wales. In effect, that means the Long Service Corporation is unable to collect the levies for otherwise eligible work conducted in Commonwealth places and that otherwise eligible work does not count as recognised service for workers who live in New South Wales.

I assure the people of New South Wales that the Minns Labor Government is committed to fixing this issue. I thank the Minister, her team and the department for all the work they are doing on this. It will require Commonwealth assistance. The Minister and the Department of Customer Service have been meeting with the Commonwealth to progress this issue to allow workers covered by the portable leave schemes to accrue credits for time worked at Commonwealth places. The bill is intended to provide temporary measures until the substantive issue is fixed, including by providing that service at a Commonwealth place does not count towards the four-year threshold of non-service and so does not trigger a cancellation of registration; clarifying that the Long Service Corporation can restore cancelled registrations when the registration was cancelled due to work at a Commonwealth place; and ensuring that restoring a cancelled registration under the BCI Act will also restore prior service credits as though cancellation had not occurred, similar to an existing provision in the CCI Act.

There is still much more to do. The substantive issue needs to be fixed. Again, I congratulate the Minister, her team and the department on all the work they are doing. I also thank the trade union movement in New South Wales and all their unions for their advocacy on behalf of workers in New South Wales. I look forward to reaching out to the Federal member for Cunningham, Alison Byrnes, and meeting with her to talk about this issue and ask for the assistance of the Federal Government. Together, the New South Wales Government and Federal Government can address this outstanding issue in a timely fashion for all affected workers.