Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the fact that Serco Sodexho Defence Services has been awarded a Defence services contract to provide garrison support at the Royal Military College, Duntroon. Is the Prime Minister aware that having won this contract Serco is refusing to collectively bargain with its employees and has offered an AWA which cuts the hourly rate of pay by $1.33 below the existing collective agreement, cuts the Saturday penalty rate by $2.00 an hour below the existing collective agreement, and cuts the public holiday penalty rate by $3.33 per hour below the existing collective agreement? Isn’t the Prime Minister’s wages race to the bottom the real reason the government supports individual contracts over collective bargaining?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to that question is no. The other observation I would make is that the capacity of an employer to have a view and to implement that view in relation to the nature of an employment contract with an individual or group of his employees prior to the introduction of Work Choices involved a capacity to decide not to have a collective agreement. Work Choices has not changed that fact. So whatever may be happening there in relation to whether there is an AWA or a collective agreement is not the result of Work Choices.