Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Acting Deputy President. As the shadow treasurer rightly stated, this bill is all about clever politics. It is not about good policy; it is simply about creating a perception. Indeed, a closer analysis of this bill proves that the so-called fairness test is a fake. It proves that nothing about the application of this test is in fact fair. It proves that while, in some limited cases, the test may produce a pro-worker result, overall the test is designed to keep the industrial relations balance strongly tilted in favour of the employer. The result? A hollow promise designed to attract votes but giving little in return. The devil is in the detail.

Under the proposed fairness test, if a workplace agreement excludes or modifies one of the limited protected award conditions, the same agreement must provide fair compensation for the loss of that so-called protected condition. The agreement, as stated earlier, must be submitted to the Workplace Authority, which is to determine whether it has in fact provided fair compensation for the loss. However, the government has provided no detail of exactly how the fairness of the compensation will be determined. It has given no indication of what type of criteria will be used to assess whether in fact the compensation is fair.

While the government has said that the Workplace Authority will consider the industry, location and economic circumstances of the business and the specific employment circumstances of the employee, it has not indicated how these matters will be taken into account and what weight will be given to the employers’ circumstances compared to the employees’ circumstances. Compounding this convenient lack of detail, which is basically demonstrated in nearly all federal government policy, is the fact that the test only provides for ‘fair’ compensation and not ‘equal’ compensation. As the government has not detailed exactly how the fairness or otherwise of the compensation will be determined, it appears that it has conveniently created somewhat of a black hole in which such decisions will be determined—surprise, surprise. With little guidance as to how the decision will be made, the workplace agreement will be handed into the Workplace Authority and a decision will be handed out—effectively with no transparency and no accountability, with little or no chance for review, no chance for reasons to be provided for their decisions and no reasonable appeal process. How fair is this?

Another major concern that the Labor Party has with this proposal is the fact that it may allow employers to effectively pay lip-service to the idea of compensation and provide hollow promises in exchange for the loss of protected award conditions. For example, it has been suggested that a mere offer of a job by an employer may be considered sufficient compensation for the loss of any protected award conditions by a prospective employee. It has also been suggested that it may be deemed sufficient if the employer offers an employee something that provides no subjective benefit to them. The example that has been used by my colleagues is that of a car-parking space being offered to an employee who does not own a car. While this may seem plain ridiculous, if the Workplace Authority takes an objective approach to assessing the fairness of compensation without making inquires with the employee as to whether the compensation is in fact subjectively fair, under the government’s current proposal these sort of situations will likely end up occurring.

Hollow promises and the illusion of fairness—this is what we have come to with the government. The reality is that the proposed fairness test is not likely to provide any genuine or fair compensation to Australian workers forced to give up their basic award conditions. It was simply designed to act as a bargaining tool for this year’s up-and-coming federal election. In reality nothing about the test or the process involved in applying it is fair. Do you really think that all Australian workers will be in any place to negotiate what they consider fair and equal compensation for the loss of any one or all of their protected award conditions with their employer? Do you really think that the average Australian worker earning $75,000 per annum or less will be able to afford to mount an appeal to the High Court of Australia to review the determinations made by the Workplace Authority? Of course not. However, the Howard government are happy to create the illusion that they can.

In the current Australian workplace, which has been severely distorted by the introduction of Work Choices, the majority of Australian workers simply do not have the power to negotiate and, for what it is worth, do not have any choice. This is the reality of the Australian workplace, the reality that the Howard government have for far too long ignored. Indeed, it has arguably been primarily due to their ignorance of the fact that workers simply do not possess bargaining power equal to employers that they have created an industrial relations system that weighs heavily on the worker and their family.

The hollow promise contained in the bill can and will do nothing to shift this balance. It may provide some form of minor relief for a handful of employees but it does nothing to address the severe imbalance or inequality that has been created in the Australian workplace since the Howard government took power. You can be sure that this inequality will remain if the government should retain power. Why? Because its ignorance of the inherently unequal relationship between workers and employers blinds it to the fact that its system has failed and is in desperate need of a major overhaul.

Only Labor can be trusted with the task of restoring the balance to the Australian workplace. Indeed, recognition of the inherently unequal bargaining position of workers lies at the party’s very heart. It is on the basis of this recognition that Labor proposes to scrap Work Choices and return fairness to the Australian workplace. This simply is not going to happen under the Howard government. No tinkering around the edges of Work Choices, as this bill does, will lift the heavy burden currently being placed on Australian workers. You cannot, as the Howard government is attempting to do with this bill, make a system fair simply by creating an illusion and spending an extra $370.3 million doing it. What is needed is a rethink and a restructure from the core—recognition of the true nature of the relationship between workers and employers and the establishment of a system that accommodates the needs of both. That is exactly what Labor proposes to do. (Time expired)