Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister. Whilst the transition bill allows for the phasing in of minimum wages in modern awards on application by an employer who can prove to Fair Work Australia that such measures are necessary to ensure the ongoing viability of their business, the Deputy Prime Minister indicated in her speech to parliament some 12 months ago when introducing the transition to Forward with Fairness legislation that Fair Work Australia, currently the Industrial Relations Commission, can put in place arrangements to phase in differences between old awards and modernised awards over five years. She said:

Such phasing-in arrangements will ensure that employers are provided with a lengthy adjustment period to adapt and plan for any such new standard.

Yet a lengthy adjustment period does not avoid increased cost at the end of that adjustment period. As Brad Norington wrote in the Australian today:

… Gillard—

the Deputy Prime Minister—

cannot deny the revamp of awards is heading in one direction.

Employers face steep increases in minimum rates, sooner or later.

          …            …            …

Award modernisation is a ticking time bomb for Gillard and the Government.

Your phase-in just tries, Minister, to defer the explosion until after the next election. That is what it tries to do; that is all it tries to do. It is hardly sophisticated. A phase-in period will not stop increased costs. It just says, ‘Sit there a bit longer, employer, and stew until the increased costs hit.’ Even then, according to the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009, employers can only achieve a phase-in period if they manage to convince Fair Work Australia that, if they do not get a phase-in period, the viability of their business would be directly impacted in a downward way. There is not even any room for seeking relief from Fair Work Australia if jobs are threatened without there also being a threat to the viability of the business. No; the only way you get a phase-in period, to sit and stew in, is if you can show that modern awards are the sole reason, the operative reason, for the lack of viability of the business in the longer term.

Minister, this morning you have provided the business community with no reassurance. However you cut it, a modern award can increase an employer’s costs. Minister, you have provided the employer community with no reassurance about the transition bill, which does by your own say-so impact on this bill—because in your answers you have talked about a statement of intent and aim of the minister. Your promises some 12 months ago under the Workplace Relations Act are impacted upon by the transition bill that was introduced yesterday that inextricably relates to and underpins this Fair Work Bill. The answers given by you this morning in this place can only lead us to conclude that a modern award can increase employers’ costs and in so doing can, on the say-so of the business community, cost employees their jobs.

So, despite the transition bill having some provisions that the government says might allow Fair Work Australia to make take-home pay orders to protect employees’ pay, the business community is clearly saying that, because of the probability that award modernisation will increase their business costs, that is going to cost employees their jobs. That is hardly protecting employees. As Brad Norington says, it is ‘a ticking time bomb for Gillard and the government’. Minister, is there any reassurance that you can provide to the business community and their workers that award modernisation will not increase costs and will not cost jobs?