Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for Makin says, go away money was being paid out regularly by small and medium sized businesses in Australia rather than having to reinstate someone. And look at some of the cases where tribunals have ordered reinstatement. Somebody was caught red-handed thieving from the employer, and a tribunal ordered reinstatement. Somebody was involved in gross sexual harassment of a female colleague, and a tribunal ordered reinstatement. And there are other cases that I will not describe here in the parliament this afternoon, where tribunals have ordered reinstatement.

This is the system that the Australian Labor Party wants to put back in place, rather than taking a realistic look at these propositions. I have had small business operators come up to me in different states of Australia over the last few weeks saying, ‘I’ve taken on another one or two workers because you’ve got rid of the unfair dismissal system.’ Why did they put on another one or two workers? Because they are no longer afraid that, if they put somebody on and it does not work out, the worker will bring an unmeritorious claim against them and they will end up paying $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 and in some cases thousands of dollars more than that. Yet this remains the Australian Labor Party’s policy, repeated over and over again. What will that do for creating jobs for Australians? What will that do to create the fairness for employers and employees that we have this wild rhetoric about from the Leader of the Opposition?

On top of that, we have good faith bargaining. What does this mean? It means any business owner, including a small business without even one trade union member, will be forced by law, under the ALP’s policy, to meet and negotiate higher above-award wages and employment conditions with any union official who makes those demands. This would occur even if the workplace has no trade union members. Again, this is the Australian Labor Party’s policy for employment law in Australia in the future, if they were elected—union bargaining agent fees, compulsory contributions to union training funds and compulsory time off for union activities. I gave an example of that in question time a couple of days ago—the sorts of things which are part and parcel of the Australian Labor Party’s policy when it comes to industrial relations.

There would be no limit on the matters that could be included in awards. Labor would abolish the current limit of 20 allowable matters under awards. Unions would have automatic right of entry into workplaces where they have current members, or even prospective members. So even if there is no union member in a workplace, you will have the thugs from the union rolling in on building sites—as we had until we got the Australian Building and Construction Industry Commission in place—right around Australia. They would abolish prohibitions on secondary boycotts and sympathy strikes currently contained in the Trade Practices Act; they would get rid of the Australian Building and Construction Industry Commission.

The greatest danger to the men and women who work in Australia—the greatest danger to them and their families and their wellbeing, their standard of living and their future prosperity—is not anything that is contained in the Work Choices legislation, which will bring about better outcomes. The greatest danger to the men and women of Australia is the election, at some stage in the future, of a Labor government.

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