Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

The reality is that the Australian people must understand that the changes proposed by this bill are far from very modest, as the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations describes them. This is a radical re-ordering of Australian workplace law, which every business organisation in Australia has pleaded with this government not to go ahead with. But it falls on deaf ears. The minister doesn't care. He has no interest that the job creators of Australia are telling him that it will be harder to keep people in jobs. That means the people who employ other people will not be able to employ them under this regime, and the government, again, is not listening to their concerns. This sort of complexity and the costs associated with it will be impossible for small business and medium business with more than 15 employees to deal with.

In my electorate on the Gold Coast—everybody enjoys Surfers Paradise; they enjoy the central Gold Coast—there are 32,000 small and family businesses who could be impacted by this regime. There are 72,000 small and family businesses on the Gold Coast. Medium businesses—I don't have a number for you, Deputy Speaker—will definitely be affected by this legislation, and so will the local economy when it comes to job losses as a consequence. Once again the Labor Party seeks to erode the choice and flexibility of individuals who want to work in their own time, on their own terms. This is an affront to liberalism. Choice and flexibility are the bedrock of the Liberal Party of Australia, and they're the bedrock of entrepreneurialism, which is the bedrock of the Gold Coast. Therefore I see this as an affront to any family or any individual who wants to get ahead on their own terms and build something worthwhile.

It's an example of big government intervention at the behest, of course, of their union masters, moving the dial so that unions have access to a whole new marketplace of membership fees. That is what it blatantly is; let's be clear. It's about putting significant constraints on businesses and employers who wish to expand—in other words, grow—build something and construct new projects and infrastructure or simply manage their own operations in their own way. It is taking away choice, not delivering choice to more Australians. That's the basic difference between us on this side of the chamber and those on the other side of the chamber, who seek to take away your choice, who seek to tell you what to do, who seek to come into your business and instruct you on what you should be doing behind your business doors. When running a business gets impossibly complex, impossibly hard, impossibly uncertain and costs just too much, what do Australians across our nation understand happens? Businesses close their doors. They don't employ those Australians any longer. So those families who work in businesses, small and medium, are at risk of being on the unemployment line. But those on the other side don't seem to understand that as a basic premise—that its job losses; it's livelihoods that will be lost.

This bill also does nothing to increase productivity. Business groups and employers say that the proposed IR changes will smash productivity, investment and job creation. This is at the very time, as we've heard from the shadow Treasurer, that we have entered a per capita recession. Labor puts the brakes on productivity as we've entered a per capita recession. It's unbelievable that they would choose this time in the Australian economic landscape to introduce these changes. Ultimately, it will lead to an economic slow-down that could lead to a full-blown recession. In a cost-of-living crisis, Labor is introducing this. They are slamming it through the parliament quickly at a time when Australians can't pay their bills, can't pay their mortgages and can't pay for their grocery bills. It's unconscionable. Australians are barely making ends meet. This government is ramming through this legislation to make things more expensive by $9 billion in one decade, and that's just the tip of the iceberg because those additional costs get passed on to consumers. That adds to inflation.

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations said that business would likely be able to pass on extra costs through higher prices for consumers or third-party businesses. The minister himself admitted that the new laws will increase costs for consumers for everyday services they have come to rely on—with a smile. You've been told that this bill will increase prices to you as an Australian consumer by a minister, with a smile on his face, telling you it's going to cost more. Let's be clear. During a cost-of-living crisis for Australia, he's ramming this legislation through the House, which will cost you more. If you don't believe my words or you have doubts about my words, you should listen to the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott.

See this speech in context