Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

They said it was—they couldn't do the math—around $75,000. We now know it's actually $80,000, and for large businesses it's $94,000. But it gets better. The contempt that the Albanese government has for job creators in this country was on display in the exposure that there is a $5,000 error in the costs that were calculated for medium-sized businesses. That cost is now $5,000 higher. It is an $80,000 bargaining tax when they are roped into multi-employer bargaining. But it gets worse, because what did the Minister for Small Business actually call this mistake? She said it was essentially a typo. Quite frankly, that could only come from a minister representing the Australian Labor Party. Why do I say that? Because blind Freddie can tell you that $5,000 is not a typo when it is an increased cost that is going to be borne by the job creators of this country, by any business currently above 15 employees. So for a business with 16 employees—say, a cafe in Sydney—that's $5,000, and it's a typo? Quite frankly, that is treating those who are going to be paying the Albanese government's bargaining tax with contempt.

It gets worse. One would have thought that you couldn't get worse than a $5,000 mistake that is going to cost business, but it does get worse. When we explore how the department, working with the Australian Labor Party, the government, came up with the costs that are going to be borne by business, we find that, rather than consult—God forbid you should consult, because if you consult you get told by the job creators in this country: 'This bill will only lead to more strikes and less jobs. This bill will not have the intended effect that the Albanese government says it does.' Why bother consulting when you can actually turn to Mr Google. Footnote 70 in the regulation impact statement says the department used an article entitled, and I assume this was the Google search term, 'How much should I charge as a consultant in Australia', from a website named authentic.com.au, to calculate this cost.

Anyone from business listening into this should know that this is how the author of the article, Benjamin J Harvey, is described on the website:

A cross between business strategist, modern day spiritual healer, and self-development expert, Benjamin J Harvey is as comfortable working with Shamans to Strategists, Psychics to Sales Reps, Healers to Home Makers, Buddhists to Businessmen and Meditators to Mediators.

You have to be kidding me. That is the source the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations used, signed off by Minister Burke's office, as the relevant source to work out the costs that should be imposed on business. I asked the department, at a very quick hearing into this, what industrial relations bargaining experience any of these people have. Oops, there was none. That is the contempt that the Albanese government has for the job creators of Australia.

You thought it couldn't get worse. Well, it does. Let's go to page 42 of the regulation impact statement of Mr Burke and Anthony Albanese, our Prime Minister. It refers to an article entitled—yet another Mr Google search term—'How much do payroll services cost?' You couldn't speak to a small business, you couldn't speak to ACCI, you couldn't speak to Ai Group, you couldn't speak to COSBOA. Why would you do that? Because you might be told what it really costs, as opposed to what the website bark.com tells you. Bark.com is an interesting website. It lists its most popular services as 'dog and pet grooming, dog training, dog walking, life coaching, limousine hire, magicians and private investigators'. You actually cannot make this up, because this is what appears in a regulatory impact statement from the Anthony Albanese Labor government in relation to the most fundamental changes that we are making, or will be made, to our industrial relations system in decades. Instead of consulting with the job creators of this country, this government holds them in contempt and uses the Google search engine: 'How much should I charge as a consultant in Australia?' and 'How much do payroll services cost?'

And they're wrong. That is actually right, Senator Brockman, because we actually asked the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 'Could you actually tell us what a more realistic cost is?' The department came up with $175 per hour with their little Google search. ACCI says, 'Using the government’s own methodology, but with a far more accurate minimum market rate of $438 per hour'!

Let's now look at what the government doesn't want businesses in Australia to know, because guess what? Your bargaining tax that's about to be imposed on you by Mr Albanese has just increased—between $19,574 and $23,684 for a small business, between $107,344 and $129,880 for a medium business and between $126,307 and $152,824 for a large business. These are significant costs. These are significant costs that this appalling bill will impose on businesses of this country.

There's a reason the government didn't consult. It's because this legislation is all about creating conflict in workplaces, stopping businesses from negotiating pay and conditions with their own employees and basically handing over decision-making to a centralised umpire. Labor have made it very clear in this bill that they want to hand over Australian workplaces to unions, including small and family businesses. Employers have said multi-employer bargaining will dramatically increase the number of strikes across the economy.

We all want higher wages, but there is no evidence because there has not been any modelling done in relation to this bill that the reforms will deliver higher wages. In fact, when Senator Pocock was asked, 'Did the government, in doing the deal with you, guarantee that wages would increase?', Senator Pocock had to say that there is no guarantee that wages will increase. So, in other words, based on all the comments from employers, the evidence is the opposite. The evidence from the government is: no modelling has been done.

I put to the department: Whose wages will increase? They couldn't tell me. When will wages start to increase? They couldn't tell me. And by how much will wages start to increase? Again, they couldn't tell me. When the job creators of this country stand united and say to the Prime Minister that this bill will only lead to more strikes and job losses, it will allow unions into small business—and they have never had to deal with unions before—it will potentially hold up wage rises because of increased complexity and delays, it will undermine competition so Australians have fewer choices but face higher costs, it will force up prices and increase the cost of living and it will unfairly target small businesses because they do not have the resources to deal with this type of legislation you'd actually think you'd quietly pull the legislation and listen to the job creators of this country. But that's not what the Labor government does.

Time is short, unfortunately. I would like to talk about the fact that also in this bill I feel very sorry for the construction industry, because they will shortly be handed, on the silver platter, back to John Setka and the most militant union in Australia.

The government ignores all businesses. Why? Because it's not about the job creators of this country. Quite frankly, it is only about the Albanese Labor government repaying their union pay masters. All I can say is shame on them.