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

I thank the senator for her question. It seems we are having dorothies today. The commencement of modern awards from 1 July 2010 will achieve a very significant national reform, one which evaded the Howard government—despite its attempts. Modern awards will simplify and reduce more than 2,400 old state and federal awards and instruments. Modern awards will be easy to find and read and to apply in the workplace to provide a fair and modern award safety net for the future. I am aware—Senator Fisher is obviously aware of the same concerns and I ask her not to listen to the chattering classes—that there are ongoing concerns that wage costs may increase in the states which previously had a different state award applying. For example, in the hospital industry more broadly or the restaurant and catering industry, some states have different penalty rate structures and it is important that on 26 February 2009 the minister met with Mr John Hart, CEO of Restaurant Catering Australia. The government’s award modernisation request to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission states that ‘the creation of modern awards is not intended to disadvantage employees or employers’.

The Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Bill 2008, passed in March 2008, provided for a transition period of up to five years in relation to the award modernisation process. If you juxtapose those, it is designed to move us to an award modernising system which is fair and balanced to employers and to employees and ensures that there is a process over five years whereby these matters can be introduced with both affected parties—the employer and the employee.