Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Rudd government is pleased to be able to stand up and talk about fairness in industrial relations. The Liberals have been a bit flat since Work Choices went under the wheel. Nevertheless, the government believes that industrial disputes are serious. The government’s Forward with Fairness policy explicitly states that the government will have clear, tough rules about industrial action. The government recognises the impact that industrial action can have on working families, businesses, communities and the Australian economy.

Under the Rudd Labor government industrial action will be protected in only limited circumstances: during bargaining for a collective enterprise agreement and following a mandatory secret ballot. Industrial action in pursuit of pattern bargaining will be unlawful. The regulations of secondary boycotts will stay in the Trade Practices Act 1974. If unprotected action is taken, ready access to effective remedies will be available to affected parties. As has been previously noted, the number of collective agreements due to be renegotiated in the first half of 2008 increased significantly compared with the same period in the previous year. This can be attributed to people locking in their collective agreements before Work Choices took effect in March 2006. The number of significant actions is not surprising. Before Work Choices came in, people locked into certified agreements to ensure that they could get through Work Choices. They were hopeful that the Rudd Labor government would be successful and would destroy Work Choices. They understood the unfairness that Work Choices brought. They understood that thousands of working mums and dads and people out there in the community would be stripped of conditions and pay through Work Choices.

Overall, industrial disputes have declined since 1993. Working days lost per 1,000 employees declined from 26.4 in 2005 to 14.9 in 2006 and then to 5.4 in 2007. For the June quarter 2008, there were 60 disputes—up from 39 in the March quarter of 2008. Working days lost per 1,000 employees have increased to 9.2 in the June quarter 2008—up from about 4.6 in the March 2008 quarter. That is from the ABS industrial dispute data for the June quarter 2008. What the Liberals have to understand is that this increase includes a high level of continued industrial action in the education, health and community services areas. One of the things that the Liberals have failed to recognise is that, as a consequence of their Work Choices, people had delayed enterprise bargaining and they had locked in certified agreements. As part of the overall bargaining process, when certified agreements now come up people can take protected industrial action for their certified agreements. What this government stands for is to ensure that we do have fairness in the industrial relations system, fairness that ensures that working mums and dads can get the outcomes— (Time expired)