Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade. Would the Deputy Prime Minister advise the House of the threat to Australia’s trade performance and wider economy posed by Labor’s plan to hand control of Australia’s workforce to the union movement?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Barker for his question. The member for Barker would recognise the significance of productivity growth to our competitiveness in the international marketplace. Our competitive edge relies very heavily on productivity growth. We have had productivity growth over the last 10 or so years in the Australian economy, and it has helped us achieve $177 billion worth of exports last year—very relevant in the member’s electorate of Barker.

The policy being proposed by the Australian Labor Party to rip up Australian workplace agreements would clearly undermine all those productivity gains, as a result of which we have enjoyed growth in our economy. They would be unbelievably irresponsible policies if they were to be implemented. We have heard many comments from different industries that are supporting the current government’s position on industrial relations. The mining industry alone says it will take a $6.6 billion hit to productivity every year if it cannot use AWAs. The mining industry is leading Australia’s export growth. The agriculture sector, which competes with the mining sector for employment and employees, says that its ability to keep good people in its industry would seriously suffer if it could not use AWAs to match employment opportunities with employee wishes.

The Leader of the Opposition wants to roll back the industrial relations system in Australia to the bad old days, when the union movement held the country to ransom. We all remember these great examples in our industrial relations history. We remember the days when our minerals exports were brought to a halt over strikes about what type of ice-cream was sold in a canteen on a mine site. That took place in Robe River. We remember the days when export abattoirs like Mudginberri were shut down by the unions even after the employer had won the case in the Industrial Relations Commission.

Labor’s way of running the economy in the 1980s was no way to run the economy. Our economy then was about a quarter of the size it is now. The government and the Treasurer will deliver an economy in the next 12 months worth about a trillion dollars. Labor’s industrial relations policy is no way to take that forward. It would completely undermine productivity in the workplace and therefore undermine growth in the economy.

I will finish with a quote from Access Economics, back in 2004, about the preferred economic model of the Australian Labor Party. Access Economics had a close look at Labor’s industrial relations policy back then and concluded:

The likely outcome is lower productivity growth and less accurate matching of wages and productivity at the enterprise level.

For our economy to continue to grow and expand we have to be able to compete and we have to be competitive at home and abroad.