Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister’s comments on 5 October about his extreme industrial relations laws:

... it’s all about providing people with choice ...

…            …            …

We’re not going to push AWAs on people ...

Is the Prime Minister aware that Martin Donnelly electrical services is contracted to help build the new Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet building? Is the Prime Minister also aware that the existing collective agreement expires in December, and that Martin Donnelly electrical services employees have repeatedly and unanimously expressed their wish to negotiate a new collective agreement? Isn’t it the case that the employer has unilaterally denied this and is requiring employees to sign an AWA? What does the Prime Minister say to these sparkies, who now know that the Prime Minister’s choice is no choice?

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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that employers, long before the introduction of Work Choices, had the right to propose a particular form of employment contract. It has been the law for more than a decade in this country that an employer could, consistent with something I am about to say, nominate that people, particularly new employees, be engaged on AWAs.

The Leader of the Opposition would also be aware that under the new law it is unlawful for somebody to be coerced into signing an AWA. That is the law, and that law will be applied in relation to this site, as indeed for their others. I also inform the Leader of the Opposition that my advice about the unanimity of the reaction of the employees is different from that of the Leader of the Opposition. But let us wait and see.

I also, as a footnote, add that I am aware that my department does not actually own the building.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

I will tell you whose responsibility it is. It is owned by a trust representing industry superannuation funds, and on the board of this trust is a Mr John Sutton from the CFMEU. There are some sections of the CFMEU for which I have a certain affection, but I am not sure that Mr Sutton belongs in that section. If the Leader of the Opposition has some further concerns about this issue, perhaps he could have a chat with his friend John Sutton.

Danna Vale (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister provide an update on how Australian workplace agreements are boosting employment and wages? What will happen to workers’ wages and conditions if these agreements are abolished?

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hughes for her question and, in answering it, I note that the unemployment rate in Hughes stands at 2.9 per cent. The constituents of Hughes are some of the many people throughout Australia who are getting the rewards and the benefits of changes to workplace laws. There have been 175,000 new jobs created in Australia since the introduction of Work Choices, real wages are continuing to grow and industrial disputes are at the lowest level in the history of this country.

It is true that Australian workplace agreements are being taken up in quite considerable numbers. Indeed, last week the Prime Minister and I had the opportunity of visiting a disability service in South Australia, in the member for Wakefield’s electorate, where the one millionth AWA had been signed. Mr Bob Raven was the employee who had signed the one millionth AWA. The one millionth AWA also coincided with the 100,000th AWA lodged under the Work Choices system.

Let us look at some of the advantages for Mr Raven and his fellow employees—about 30 staff at Comrec’s various disability support services in South Australia—under the AWA. They have, for example, the option of trading wage increases for additional leave. They have flexible start and finish times. They have the option of working from home and access to long service leave as single days. They have three days additional leave per year, accessible for any personal reason. They have things like study leave.

All of those are advantages that Mr Raven, as he said to us last week, found attractive in this Australian workplace agreement and for him to work in this particular business. This is an example of the flexibility and the choice that Australian workers now have that they did not have in the past. These choices and this flexibility arise from the changes that this government has put in place. It is nonsensical to be taking away these choices. I noted in the West Australian on the weekend—and if the member for Brand ever visited Western Australia these days he might have noted it himself—an article on a worker in that state titled: ‘Keep your hands off: miner tells union’, and by extension the miner was telling the Leader of the Opposition that as well.

The Leader of the Opposition has previously praised and acknowledged AWAs. Indeed, he previously acknowledged the sheer irresponsibility of abolishing AWAs when he said:

There’ll be a million of those things in place when we come into office and you can’t wander around cancelling contracts.

What happened? As soon as there was word of a challenge to the leadership of the member for Brand as the Leader of the Opposition of Australia, he raced into the ALP conference in Sydney and said, ‘Well, I’m going to rip up Australian workplace agreements.’ What he would do is to rip up the flexibility that the likes of Mr Raven have, the flexibility that up to a million Australians have already entered into with Australian workplace agreements. There is only one description for this, and that is economic vandalism.

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, and it again refers to the sparkies working at the new Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet building. It also follows on from the minister’s answer referring to choice. Is the Prime Minister aware that the Australian workplace agreement that Martin Donnelly electrical services employees are required to sign provides that payment of bonuses, overtime, loadings, penalties or other allowances is at the sole discretion of the company, a multistorey allowance is removed and there is no guarantee of a pay increase during the three-year life of the agreement? Is the Prime Minister prepared to walk one block down to his new departmental headquarters and explain to the sparkies working on the site why the only real choice they have is to sign an AWA on inferior conditions—in other words, to take it or leave it?

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

I have learned from experience that you never take at face value what the member for Perth says about the content of an Australian workplace agreement. I am advised that negotiations continue—

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

Go down and ask them. Do a one-block detour.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Perth has asked his question.

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

in relation to the employees. I am further advised that the law of this country is that nobody can be sacked for refusing to sign an AWA. I continue to be advised that unemployment is at a record 30-year low in this country. My understanding is that although the unemployment rate in the ACT may not have reached the marvellous lows of the shire in which the electorate of Hughes is located it is sharply lower than it was 10 years ago.