Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to speak on a bill that will remove systematic intimidation from the Australian higher education system. It is also good to speak to a bill that will help return some of the underpinnings of academic freedoms. The Higher Education Support Amendment (Removal of the Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements and National Governance Protocols Requirements and Other Matters) Bill 2008 is designed to correct gross interference and clear intimidation suffered by universities and their staff.

In having to introduce this bill, the Rudd government shows how far the Howard government went with their ideological obsession before they were unceremoniously turfed out of office. We know this bill is about getting rid of the laws that forced every employee, every employer and every institution down the Work Choices road. It is a very important bill to restore the rights of employees and employers to enter into agreements of their choosing. But it has a wider context in the sweep of our country’s traditions. The need for this bill shows that, when John Howard left office, liberalism was dead and buried in the Liberal Party. These laws put in place by the Liberal Party were, in many ways, the symbolic gravestone of liberalism in the Liberal Party. These Liberal Party laws are total anathema to the higher education system. These Liberal coalition laws represented a clear and present danger to university academics.

Traditionally the role of higher education institutions formed an integral part of liberal philosophy and thought. Universities were places where freedom of thought was paramount. The liberal tradition held that knowledge, the advancement of social theory and scientific development were best fostered free from the interference of the state. Universities under the liberal tradition have clung fast to that view for centuries. Then along came Prime Minister John Howard, who tore up and totally shredded that theory and who did not worry about liberal principles or traditions. The then government decided exactly how universities would be run right down to every agreement entered into between universities and every member of their staff across Australia. John Howard tore up the liberalism and got his way on narrow ideological obsession, which amounted to a petty antisocial vendetta against university staff with more social views of the world. All universities and higher education institutions were compelled to think his way or lose millions of dollars in funding. All universities had to have John Howard’s view of the way people acted and reacted in their working arrangements. All universities and their working arrangements had to treat their tutors, professors, associate professors, deans and vice-chancellors as John Howard decreed or be harshly penalised financially. The clauses rammed through on the Higher Education Support Act 2003 by John Howard should be inscribed on the gravestone of the Liberal Party when they finally have the courage to admit that they are no longer liberals and the Liberal Party is no longer a liberal party.

Under liberal university tradition, tenure was very important. It was something that enabled university staff, academics, tutors, professors, associate professors and researchers to pursue ideas and theories without fear or discrimination. Of course, over the years, views about merits of tenure have changed. The one view that has remained constant in this time, however, is Labor’s view. We have always held fast to our principles. A core principle is that employees, whoever they are—whether academics, teachers, health workers, journalists or tradespeople—are entitled to some job security. We believe job security is important to people’s peace of mind. It is important for people to do basic things like knowing that they can pay the mortgage but it is also important in terms of them being able to express an opinion. Under the Work Choices legislation, how many times had we heard stories about an employee getting targeted, bullied, taken advantage of or sacked because they had expressed a view contrary to their employer? Time and time again we heard it. As we know, most employers are not like this, but some are. Some, when they have a bad day, take it out on others.

The academic world is to a large extent a world of ideas. It is also increasingly a competitive academic world. There is vulnerability for people in the academic world to be targeted and punished for their ideas under Work Choices legislation—which is what John Howard wanted. The changes he put through under the Higher Education Support Act forced universities to go down the Work Choices path. Universities had no choice. Every university had to put on the Work Choices straitjacket and goosestep down the recently unseated Prime Minister’s road. Work Choices, of course, shreds any sense of job security or tenure in any form at all. We need to give universities the chance to choose. Universities should not be forced to offer AWAs to staff. Universities should be able to sit down with their staff and work out the industrial relations arrangements that best suit them. They should be given the opportunity to sit down, talk with staff and work out a compromise to satisfy management’s desire to effectively manage employees’ desires for job security and reasonable salary and conditions.

The Work Choices laws that were foisted on Australian universities meant that, anywhere, anytime, employees could be sacked for no reason. If you were a lecturer at the University of Melbourne or the University of Sydney and someone took a set against you, anyone with a basic grasp of Work Choices could send you off down the highway—John Howard’s ‘my way highway’.

These terrible laws, which resulted in the Prime Minister losing his seat, along with dozens of his cronies, are bad for universities, bad for TAFE colleges, bad for schools and bad for every Australian workplace. They are especially bad for universities. The overwhelming majority of Australians recognise that. This bill will rid us of Work Choices from another important area of Australian life. This bill will rid important institutions of these rotten laws.

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