Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise today in support of the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014.

Four months prior to the 2013 federal election the coalition's policy to improve fair work laws was released. Since forming government in 2013, we have been implementing our workplace relations election commitments; nothing more, nothing less. We have already established the Registered Organisations Commission and re-established the Australian Building and Construction Commission, and we have taken measures to support very comprehensive measures to support small business.

We promised Australia would be open for business and we are delivering on that promise by restoring certainty to the workplace relations system and ensuring that the relevant legislation and regulations are more balanced and more effective in the 21st century. Great outcomes are realised when passionate people from all different sectors in our community come together to pursue common goals; goals underpinned by a desire to adapt, a desire to transform and a desire to evolve our economy and our society. Change occurs when people are not fearful of that change but instead find a way to work together to collaborate and to embrace that change.

Business, government, community organisations and trade unions all play an important part in preparing our nation for the future. I believe that that has never been more important than it is today. Internationally there is increasing recognition of the importance of collaboration and cooperation to facilitate innovation, economic development and of course the jobs of the future for all Australian workers.

Innovation is essential in every industry, not just to thrive but simply to survive. Today, if you stand still, you go backwards. In the era of the internet of everything—and increasingly liberal trade arrangements—without rapid and continual adaptation, standing still means death; and not just for individual businesses and the jobs that go with them but also for whole industries which support our economy.

Trade unions must absolutely have a role, not only in protecting those they represent but also in engaging in debate about how we can create and sustain the jobs of the future in the economy of the future. I believe that the old-style union tactics and mindset, which are so clearly apparent in the royal commission, have absolutely no place in preparing this economy and our workers for the jobs of the future.

Despite all the emotion, the rhetoric and the flourishes from those opposite, the amendments in the Fair Work Amendment Bill will help Australian businesses embrace the jobs of the future, and expand and deliver high real-wage growth, while ensuring that fair work laws maintain a strong and enforceable safety net for all Australian workers.

The state of Western Australia—my own home state—is a clear example of the evolving nature of workplaces in Australia and the need for change in order to grow. In my own state, as nationally, no one government, no single level of government, no single business or industry group or indeed trade union organisation, can do it alone.

Take the case of manufacturing. If you just listen to the prevailing national debate and narrative on the future of manufacturing in Australia, you could be forgiven for thinking that high-end manufacturing has no place anymore in this country. But I can tell you that Western Australia is living, breathing proof that this is simply not true. Nationally for the last 14 years manufacturing has been increasing on average by only 0.4 per cent per annum, but in my own home state of Western Australia over the last 14 years manufacturing has in fact been increasing by nearly five per cent every year. In fact today, from Western Australia alone, we export well over $20 billion worth of high-end manufactured goods to the rest of the world, in addition to what we are producing for the rest of the country. That is a fact that has until now been overshadowed by the sheer volume of our resource sector exports.

Western Australia has almost 9,000 manufacturers, employing 91,000 workers. But their competitive advantage lies not in labour costs but in the ability of their workforce to innovatively produce high-quality and high-value bespoke goods. So the issue for us today in Western Australia, as it is in the rest of the country, is: how do we collaborate, how do we work together, to help those manufacturing industries, those 91,000 workers, adapt to the post mining and construction phase, to survive and to thrive in new domestic and emerging international markets?

My own home state of Western Australia has always been trade exposed, and we understand that to be internationally competitive we need to innovate to keep being productive and to keep offering those high-value manufactured goods. But, for that, we need to understand also that we need to be able to commercialise. How do we do that? Growth and competitiveness are increasingly driven internationally by education—skills and training. It is also driven by developing financial markets and increased access to foreign markets. And, critically, growth and competitiveness are increasingly driven internationally by the subject of the bill before us today: the availability of well-functioning goods and labour markets.

So how do we measure our performance? And what does this government need to do—and what do all governments need to do—to create this environment? A good place to start and a good indicator of where we sit is to look at the Bloomberg Innovation Index, in which Australia is ranked 13th out of 50. There is also the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index innovation pillar, in which we sit at 23rd of 140. They are not bad statistics, but they clearly indicate where policy at all levels of government needs to focus to get us further up towards No. 1.

But I think the most alarming statistic, which should concern all of us in this place, is that, when you have a look at Australia's future prospects for jobs, currently we sit at 39th out of 40 OECD countries in commercialisation. Think about the implications of that: 39th out of 40 in our ability to commercialise innovation. That translates into an appalling record in commercialising in new industries for jobs. That, I believe, is where we all need to work together to improve.

So what are some of the areas that—not this government but those overseas; in fact the OECD has advised us—we need to get far better at in order to commercialise? How do we create jobs, innovate, become more productive and really not stand still? How do we create the jobs of the future?

In this year's report, the top four inhibitors to business and job creation are: No. 1, restrictive labour regulations. That is exactly the case in point of this legislation today. Then there are: tax rates, inefficient government bureaucracy, and complexity of tax regulations. These are clearly issues we need to address together—including trade unions—to make this country a better place to do business, and also to create the jobs of the future. The No. 1 barrier to creating jobs here is 'restrictive labour regulations'.

Creating the right environment for growth and innovation by improving our employee arrangements is precisely what this government intends to do with the Fair Work Amendment Bill. It is interesting to note that this bill will deliver not just on the promise we made to the Australian people prior to the 2013 federal election; we are also delivering on Labor's broken-promise policy commitments made prior to the 2007 federal election. This is a somewhat inconvenient truth for those opposite, who are now seeking to block the passage of this legislation. Not only is it exactly what we took to the federal election; it is also what those opposite took to the 2007 federal election. All I can say to those opposite is: we are now actually delivering on your own policy.

The Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014 seeks to restore balance to the Australian workplace relations system through a variety of modest but important amendments to the Fair Work Act. I will address these amendments in turn, and discuss why I believe this bill is necessary for ensuring that the workplace relations system in Australia balances the competing interests of employers and employees fairly and effectively. It has to be a matter of balance on both sides.

Firstly, this bill will address the current imbalances in union workplace access rules. I believe that although unions should, in certain circumstances, be permitted access to the workplaces of the workers they actually represent there must be conditions attached to ensure that employers are able to run their businesses without unnecessary disruption, interference or, in some cases, intimidation.

Many issues in workplaces have come to light in the royal commission into union corruption. The questionable union practices necessitate the measures contained in this bill. Unions have played, and continue to play, an important role in Australian society and in our workplaces, but like the rest of us in society they cannot be above the law.

The royal commission has already referred 26 people for investigation over serious breaches of criminal, industrial, corporate and competition law. It has already led to the arrest of four people. It has uncovered dozens of slush funds, by which senior union officials have siphoned money to themselves and to their associates. It has uncovered associations between the CFMEU and the criminal underworld, including the Bandidos.

When Labor's very own former branch president, a former CFMEU official, was arrested and charged with blackmail, Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, said nothing. The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate also remained silent. When a current CFMEU official was arrested and charged with blackmail for pressuring employers to sign his enterprise agreement, again, the Leader of the Opposition in the other place, and in this place, remained silent. The unions need to be used for the purposes for which they were intended and the purposes for which their union members pay their dues. They need to operate within the law and in a way that will not be detrimental to Australian jobs and to the Australian economy. It is for all of these reasons that I support the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014.

In 2007, the Labor Party made a promise that there would be no changes to the union right of entry laws. Julia Gillard stated in August 2007:

We understand that entering on the premises of an employer needs to happen in an orderly way. We will keep the right of entry provisions.

These were the words of a future Labor Prime Minister, evidence that those amendments are not even unreasonable to Labor. So that is what they said, but what did those opposite actually do? It was not what they promised. Instead, under the Labor government there was a loosening of the right of entry provisions under the Fair Work Act, which provided unions greater access to workplaces. This access was then intentionally exploited with businesses receiving excessive visits from unions, competing to represent employees at their workplaces. The Fair Work review panel, commissioned by the now Leader of the Opposition Mr Shorten, in its 2012 report noted that the Pluto LNG project received over 200 right of entry visits in only three months. I struggle to believe how even those opposite could believe this is a tenable situation for such an important industry. I think it demonstrates also that intimidatory tactics have no place in 21st century workplaces.

This bill is essential to ensure that businesses are not deliberately harassed by unions looking to increase their membership. Only 17 per cent of workers in Australia today choose to be a member of a union. And having look at a lot of the outcomes of the royal commission, it is no wonder that they choose not to join a union.

The changes included in this bill will not impact on the unions who exercise the right of entry responsibly. It will, however, stop the militant like behaviour of some unions and their officials which, as I have said, should have absolutely no place in modern workplaces. I asked why should unions be permitted to enter a workplace and hold discussions when they do not even have members in that workplace, and no-one has sought their assistance or there presence? To me, and to those on this side of the chamber, that is not reasonable.

Under these amendments unions will only be entitled to enter a workplace for discussion purposes if they are covered by an enterprise agreement, or if they have been invited by a member or an employee they are entitled to represent. This is neither unreasonable nor restrictive. Why should unions be entitled to disrupt workers during their lunch breaks when their presence has not been requested and the workers are not even union members? I imagine the vast majority of the 87 per cent of private sector workers, who have chosen not to join a union, would rather eat their lunch in peace than be harassed by union organisers.

This bill will allow employers to nominate a room for the purpose of discussions—again, not unreasonable. Employers will continue to be prevented from nominating a room with the intention of intimidating, hindering or discouraging employees from participating in these discussions. This will allow the unions to discuss their business with employees who want to engage in such discussions rather than subjecting the entire workforce to an impromptu lecture during their meal break. Again, this is not unreasonable.

I also wonder why employers should be obligated to provide accommodation and transport to remote sites for union officials? To me this is nothing short of an outrageous imposition on businesses, particularly in the resources sector in my own state. These arrangements should be made between the unions and the employers as the circumstances arise and not dictated in legislation. This bill will repeal this onerous practice.

In conclusion, it is my belief that this bill delivers on the pre-election promise made by the government to ensure that Australia is open for business and can create the jobs of the future and support innovation required to deliver that. These measures are necessary to ensure a more stable, fair and prosperous future for Australia's workers and businesses in a rapidly changing and innovative world economy.

Not only does it deliver on the promises made by the coalition in 2013; but we are also delivering on the election commitments made and broken by the Labor Party in the lead-up to the 2007 election. The amendments proposed today are nothing more and nothing less than what was foreshadowed in The Coalition's Policy to Improve Fair Work Laws. We are simply getting the job done, creating a fairer system which will benefit Australian workers and Australian business and ultimately create more jobs. These sensible and measured amendments will ensure that workplace relations are governed in a way that allows Australian businesses to flourish and makes it so, while they cannot compete on labour rates, they can still compete on innovation, high-end manufacturing and high-end bespoke goods in an internationally competitive environment. But, to do that, we have to tackle the tax issues that make us less competitive and the restrictive labour practices, which combine to hinder us, leaving us behind the eight ball internationally.

This bill will help encourage investment in new projects that are absolutely critical to the Australian economy by preventing unions from vetoing agreements. This will strongly signal to investors that Australia is open for business. It will strike the correct balance for the continued development of a strong, innovative and productive economy. The amendments contained in this bill correct the current imbalance and remove one of the many impediments to us moving forward into the 21st-century economy. It is for all of these reasons that I support the bill and commend it to the Senate.