Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. And when the min-ister for employment was asked about the number of strikes that had occurred under the new government—the industrial action that inevitably affects safety in the work-place, if the member for Isaacs has not ever under-stood that connection—the minister said in response that it was all to do with new agreement making. Yet the same Aust-ralian Bureau of Statistics figures show that 74 per cent of the working days lost had nothing to do with new agreement making. We are still waiting to hear from Labor as to the cause of this massive increase in industrial disputation since Labor came to office.

Labor came to office vowing to turn back the Liberal and National Party workplace relations reforms, albeit that they had delivered benefits such as low inflation and the lowest unemployment rate in more than 30 years. Labor must now manage economic problems such as inflation and slowing growth. It must now also seriously look at its workplace relations policies. What is at stake was made clear a few months ago by the Reserve Bank governor, Glenn Stevens, discussing why 1970s style stagflation—that is, high inflation and low growth—should not occur today in Australia. He said:

A key difference today, thus far, has been the behaviour of labour costs … If you go back to the mid-1970s, you had the government leading the charge in pushing wages up, you had a very different balance of power between the unions and business, a different quasi-judicial industrial relations system, and we had a serious wage-price problem back then … We don’t have that at the moment, and we must make sure we don’t get it.

The importance of efficient and flexible labour markets to achieving macroeconomic objectives has been made clear in a series of OECD economic surveys of Australia. While the Labor government is very good at trying to suggest that the Reserve Bank gave warn-ings about inflation, when you look at those statements you see that that is complete fallacy on the part of Labor. They are rewriting history once more. They ought to take note of the OECD comments about a decentralised industrial relations system, less adversarial labour relations and greater labour flexibility. The coalition understood the central importance of workplace relations to the economic wellbeing of the country. The Rudd Labor government clearly does not.

The Deputy Prime Minister and her department have made it clear that, in the 10 months since taking office, no analysis has been undertaken on the effects of Labor’s workplace relations policy on unemployment, inflation or economic growth. Incredibly, the minister has not requested a detailed, rigorous analysis of Labor’s workplace relations policy from her department nor sought assistance from Treasury. And the minister shows no intention of commissioning any serious analysis of the policies she is introducing. Instead, like the ostrich in the fable, the minister has buried her head in the sand, hoping to avoid any uncomfortable truths from the world around her.

Labor’s aversion to evidence is typical of its approach to policy. The Prime Minister promised evidence based policy but has delivered evidence-free policy. Labor ignored the advice of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Finance and other departments on Fuelwatch. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has stopped preparing written comments on cabinet submissions—at whose command is unclear. The fact is that the government is refusing to take advice, and the establishment of Safe Work Australia is yet another example of this. How could it possibly set up a body that reduces the voice of employers and employees if it were serious about improving occupational health and safety in this country?

This lack of attention to evidence and the views of stakeholders does not end there. Yesterday the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations revealed her deep ignorance about a very fundamental economic issue: productivity and the measurement of productivity in Australia. In a speech at the National Press Club the minister said:

… Work Choices was neither a recipe for fairness nor for prosperity. In fact, after its introduction annual productivity fell by two-thirds.

I will repeat that. The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations said: ‘In fact after its introduction annual productivity fell by two-thirds.’ Now, if that were actually the case, and Australia’s annual productivity had fallen by two-thirds, GDP would now be closer to $370 billion than to $1.1 trillion. It is disturbing that the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations does not understand such a basic economic concept as productivity. The minister also confirmed that the Rudd government’s proposed new workplace relations regime will be a Trojan horse for the union movement to resume practices such as pattern bargaining—which the minister supported at the Press Club yesterday—unrestricted access to workplaces and compulsory unionism.

The fact is that Labor’s workplace rela-tions changes—and this bill is part of this consideration—are going to cause a great deal of concern in workplaces across Aust-ra-lia. One serious concern is that Labor’s introduction of so-called good-faith bargaining will result in situations where employers are dragged before Labor’s industrial umpire and where unwanted conditions and wages can be imposed on workplaces. The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations also said yesterday that pattern bargaining was not such a bad idea. We on this side of the House know that wage claims in one area of the economy which can absorb an increase should not be passed on and spread to other sectors of the economy which cannot absorb one. That is the type of environment for a wage-inflation spiral that can lead to the types of recessions we have seen under Labor governments before—and yet, astonishingly, the minister said yesterday that she supported pattern bargaining. The minister also confirmed that the Rudd government’s proposed new laws will allow unions to force employers into deducting employee union dues on their behalf.

The establishment of Safe Work Australia is another botched policy by Labor that reduces the voice of, incredibly, the unions, but also employers, effectively taking away the influence of those who know best when it comes to the issue of occupational health and safety in the workplace and putting it in the hands of state government bureaucrats—another job for Labor mates. What we are seeing is a watering down of the influence of the people who are best positioned to improve occupational health and safety in this country. Labor’s workplace relations changes, like its emissions trading scheme, are major policies which, if poorly conceived and implemented, will add greatly to the na-tion’s economic challenges. With the tumul-tuous international financial markets and the global financial insecurity we are now witnessing across the world, Australia cannot afford to embrace policies that cause job losses or job insecurity, but that is what we are seeing under this government’s so-called ‘reforms’ of workplace relations.

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