Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Where did it go? Is it in the awards? Is it one of the 10 minimum standards? No. ‘We forgot the minimum wage. How did we forget the minimum wage?’ And then we find out that the 24 months guaranteed parental leave is in fact 12 months guaranteed parental leave. And then the member for Rankin says: ‘No. Small business can reject it with a letter.’ Is that true? Small business can reject it with a letter? The Labor Party do not have to guarantee 24 months, because they guarantee 12 months and if there is a letter of rejection from small business then, well, it is not guaranteed. Then there is pattern bargaining. I do not think the Leader of the Opposition knows what pattern bargaining is. On The 7.30 Report he said, ‘We don’t support pattern bargaining.’ Yet it is in their policy, Forward with Fairness, on page 13:

Where more than one employer and their employees and unions with coverage in the workplaces agree to collectively bargain together for a single agreement they will be free to do so.

What does that mean? That is pattern bargaining. Then there is Dean Mighell. We like Dean Mighell. The Victorian branch secretary of the ETU said:

I welcome particularly the policy that lets us put anything back in agreements that we can coerce our friendly employers to put back in. That’s going to be fun.

The Labor Party will be hearing that line a bit between now and polling day. And then there are bargaining fees. It says on page 14 of Forward with Fairness:

Under Labor’s system, bargaining participants will be free to reach agreement on whatever matters suit them.

Whatever matter suits them, without qualification! And on Neil Mitchell’s program the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was asked:

... bargaining fees are banned at the moment—

but—

under your system they wouldn’t be banned, they’d be there for negotiations. Is that a fair comment?

Gillard:

Yes ...

Then there is the reversal:

MITCHELL: Just before we get to the Budget, sorry one more question on industrial relations, will you be banning union bargaining fees for non-unionists?

RUDD: Yes.

So the Deputy Leader of the Opposition says one thing about bargaining fees and the Leader of the Opposition says another. We will find out when the issue comes into this parliament in the next week or so. We will find out from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition exactly what their position is on bargaining fees. Arbitration—again the question is whether it is compulsory arbitration or not compulsory arbitration. We can never be sure. We had the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in an article in the Australian, then we had a letter that she sent out to business and then we had a different policy in Forward with Fairness, on page 16. And then we had the ‘happiness test’. Where did that come from? ‘I want everyone to be happy’. In an amusing moment on the AM program on 17 May Julia Gillard said:

By the time of transition, if the worker is on an AWA and they are happy to remain on that agreement for the balance of it’s term, then they will be able to do so.

If they are happy to honour a contract! If they are happy! Look, that’s a fantastic test! You go to buy a house and you are three-quarters of the way through the settlement and you say: ‘Oh, no, I’m not really happy with this. I’m going to pull out.’ There are no compensation issues there of course, if you believe the Deputy Leader of the Opposition! Let me tell you: there is something called a Constitution and it could have something to do with property rights for businesses. The Labor Party’s little happiness test, which they all look pretty glum about, ain’t gonna work. Could this be the Deputy Leader of the Opposition making policy on the run? But, wait, there’s more! At No. 8 we have ‘Foreign shipping permits’. Labor Party national conference resolutions, chapter 7, Nos 36 and 39: ‘Labor is committed to ensuring that general workplace laws apply to employees in the coastal trade. Labor will protect these vulnerable seafarers and promote fair labour standards in the Australian shipping industry.’ And it goes on. The Australian quotes the MUA as saying that of course they will apply Labor’s new industrial relations regime to foreign workers. Let us just establish this beyond any doubt. The Labor Party’s policy is a mess. The only economic policy they have is a mess.

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