Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I have listened with interest to the speakers on the opposite side and their contributions to this debate and I have to come to the conclusion they do not live in the real world. I dare say that everyone knows that my seat of Page is on the North Coast of New South Wales. It is bounded by Richmond in the north and Cowper in the south. The area has always had an unemployment rate that is well above the national average. I think everyone also knows that I have been around for more than 50 years, so I have seen a fair bit of this on the North Coast of New South Wales.

The recent unemployment figures, announced only a week or so ago, showed that in the seat of Page the unemployment rate has come down from 16 per cent when I took over seat, which was the rate of Paul Keating and the Labor government, to 5.2 per cent at the present time. Yes, there are a number of things responsible for that, but one of the things I will claim very clearly is changes to unfair dismissal legislation. When I went around doorknocking to seek the seat of Page in the federal parliament, small business made it very clear to me that one of the huge inhibiting factors that they had for employment was unfair dismissal. They were terrified of unfair dismissal, because some of their colleagues had been caught out on it. We all know that employers and employees do not always get on together. That can be either’s fault. It might be the employer’s fault or it could be the employees fault, but there is one thing for sure: they should not be held together just because of unfair dismissal legislation. There was even the outrageous case that went to court where an employee had been stealing from the till and the court said, ‘You should have told them not to.’ That was the outrageous situation.

I have no doubt in my mind that in an area like the North Coast it is the small business community that is employing those people who were on the unemployment queues. I think the headline the other day in the Northern Star, the paper that comes out of Lismore, said: ‘No longer the dole bludgers’ capital of Australia’. We no longer have the highest unemployment rate in Australia. We are down to ninth or something like that. It is undoubtedly the small business sector that is driving a lot of that employment.

If you look closely at these laws you will find it is the flexibility that they allow. When I was in the New South Wales parliament we never had late-night or weekend shopping. We now have all that practically right across Australia. How does the Labor Party think that is organised? Of course there is an agreement between the employee and the employer that they will work a Sunday, or half a Sunday, or Saturday, or at night and they will get time off in lieu. I know a number of people on the North Coast who find that very convenient. They go fishing or surfing for two days through the week when the crowds are not around. Of course, if you want flexibility in the workforce it is often the female partner who would like to do some work at night. Flexibility in the call centres allows people to do that. It provides the flexibility which they need, especially with a young family.

The member for Lalor made a lot of the mining industry. Yes, the mining industry in Australia is undoubtedly booming at the present time. But that is the exact reason why we need some flexibility. I have young people on the North Coast of New South Wales—mostly male, farm boys, relatively unskilled, but they are trained on the job—travelling to Central Queensland to work. They go to Brisbane, they are flown onto the job, they do three weeks on, I think it is, and one week off and they are on $100,000 a year. That is very good money for young fellows who are relatively unskilled and are trained on the job. If you had an award system, how would you get that flexibility between the employer and the employee? That is the type of flexibility you need. Without it, if you wanted to increase the wages so that miners could get employees, you would have to lift all the other awards across Australia, and what would that do to the economy?

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