Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister inform the House how the government’s workplace policies are curbing inflationary pressures in the economy? Is the minister aware of any plans to roll back these policies?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hasluck for his question. Since 1996 we have introduced laws that deliver more flexible workplace arrangements, and that has resulted in higher wages, improved productivity and more than two million new jobs. The Labor Party’s plan for industrial relations, Forward with Fairness, was written by Greg Combet for the Leader of the Opposition. It is an alarming document that winds back not just the reforms of the Howard government but the reforms at the end of the Keating government as well. Whilst many people in this building seem to be focusing on the day-to-day sport of politics, every day another voice joins the chorus of concern about the Labor Party’s plans to wind back the clock on industrial relations. Employers like Graham Kraehe of BlueScope Steel, Charlie Lenegan at Rio Tinto and today Wal King, the head of Leightons, which is the largest employer in the construction industry, are expressing dire concerns about the Labor Party’s plans for workplace relations.

It is not just employers. According to independent economic analysis, the Labor Party’s plans would cost 300,000 jobs and increase interest rates by 1.4 per cent. The Governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens, has expressed concerns about the effects a centralised workplace relations system would have; the Treasury’s Ken Henry has said that retaining a flexible system is important; and today another independent economist, Chris Richardson from Access, said:

On industrial relations I fear that Labor misjudges the risks involved. ... I think a slow-up in flexibility of the industrial system risks slower average growth and lower income growth, a smaller economic cake for Australia overall.

‘A smaller economic cake for Australia overall’ as a result of the Labor Party’s policies on industrial relations.

The Leader of the Opposition is running a duplicitous and tricky campaign on industrial relations. The Labor Party policy Forward with Fairness received unanimous trade union support on the floor of the national conference in April. My colleagues will recall that. All the members of the Labor Party who were there will recall it—unanimous support on the floor of the conference. The day after, on the Insiders program, the Leader of the Opposition admitted that he did not know the detail of his own policy and said that he left the detail to his deputy. As the policy began to unravel over those two weeks, increasingly the Leader of the Opposition hung his own deputy out to dry on bargaining fees; on minimum standards; on Fair Work Australia—we remember that one; on the Building and Construction Commission; and on a range of other issues. As the policy started to unfold, the Leader of the Opposition started to walk away from his deputy. As late as Monday this week, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said in a doorstop outside this building—and she should listen to this:

Labor announced its policy Forward with Fairness in April. We believe in that policy, we got the balance right.

So the Deputy Leader of the Opposition on Monday was recommitting the Labor Party to Forward with Fairness.

It has been brought to our attention that there is movement at the station. We are hearing from major employers that the Leader of the Opposition is engaging in one-on-one discussions, ensuring that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is not in those discussions, in an attempt to wind back parts of their policy, particularly in relation to unfair dismissal laws and in relation to AWAs. We also understand that the Leader of the Opposition wants to announce some minor modifications to the Labor Party’s industrial relations policy during the APEC conference in Sydney.

Isn’t this interesting? In the same week that we find out that the Labor Party leader is trying to undermine his own deputy, we also discover that the Labor Party is in fact sending out form letters to its own candidates, telling the union members that the Labor Party’s policy is exactly the same as that of the ACTU. So, on the one hand, the Labor Party is trying to walk the line of the union movement, delivering everything the union bosses want, and, on the other hand, the Leader of the Opposition is engaging in one-on-one meetings with business leaders, trying to placate their concern—and they are concerned.

The business campaign at the moment is an employer campaign, and—do you know what?—the biggest supporters of that employer campaign on TV are small business organisations. ACCI represents all those chambers of commerce out there. Little businesses in regional Queensland and small businesses in South Australia and Victoria are all putting their hands into their pockets to support this campaign, a campaign which we have not seen before in Australia, which covers small business and large business. Employer organisations are quite frankly scared of the implications of the Labor Party’s industrial relations policy.

All along, the Leader of the Opposition is engaging in deceit. He is deceiving his own deputy. He is deceiving Australian employers. He is deceiving Australian workers. No matter what he does and says, his policy is built, owned and operated for the union bosses, and that is bad for Australian workers.