Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I'm not sure how Senator David Pocock is going to sleep tonight. I'm not sure whether he will sleep uncomfortably, but what I can say is that this circumvention of the values that he said that he took to the election won't be forgotten. Before that election, the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, told Australians that they would be better off under Labor. We should have known that this fellow had a pretty weird relationship with the truth right back then. Nearly two years on, we've seen inflation and the cost of living skyrocket. Australians now suffer from the highest inflation rates in the developed world—higher than those of the UK, US, France, Japan, Italy and Canada. So much for 'better off'!

Under this government we've seen 12 interest rate rises. First the Treasurer and the Prime Minister decided to try and blame almost anybody else for this problem. They demonised the former Governor of the Reserve Bank, saying that he was the reason that rates were rising—the independent Governor of the Reserve Bank! But now we've seen that interest rates have also risen under the new Governor of the Reserve Bank, who was appointed by this government. Indeed, she was the one who said that Australia's inflation crisis is a homegrown problem.

Labor has mismanaged the economy. They have spent billions of taxpayer money on spending that has fuelled this inflation. As a result, Australians don't need to be told that they are feeling that cost-of-living crisis. The average Australian is around $8,000 a year worse off under this government. Their disposable income has decreased under this government. They're paying around 27 per cent more in taxes and, at the same time, the economy has flatlined. It has tanked. Productivity has gone backwards. GDP is only positive because of the excessive—enormous—number of migrants that we've seen come into this economy. If we had not had those migrants coming in, we would be in a recession right now. That's economic management under Labor.

At the same time, Labor's solution to this crisis is not meaningful cost-of-living relief. They haven't answered the calls of ordinary Australian families. They have answered their cries for help. Instead, they have decided to answer the calls of unions. They haven't decided to loosen the reins on the economy to get growth moving and turbocharge productivity. They haven't decided to lower energy prices and inject more supply into the system. They haven't decided to cut red tape. They certainly haven't decided to simplify the tax system: indeed, they've done the opposite. Instead, they have actually decided to add more burden onto employers, because Labor thinks that making it harder to hire people, run a business and sell a product will bring down the cost of living. That is economically illiterate. The Labor government is so beholden to those unions and so single-minded in its thinking that it hasn't got a clue on how its policies are damaging our economy and driving up the cost of living.

It was the coalition that set up the cost-of-living committee, because we could see how the government's measures and policies were putting a bandaid on a bullet wound and potentially making the problems worse. How do we know that these IR changes are making the cost-of-living crisis worse? Well, that's pretty simple. We know because the coalition's cost-of-living committee was told that these proposed laws would add complexity and would freeze up a system to provide cheaper food, cheaper energy and cheaper housing. That's exactly what the committee heard. These industrial relations changes make the problem worse.

This is a radical reordering of Australian workplace laws and every business organisation in the country has pleaded with the government not to go ahead with it. In fact, Senator Sheldon, Senator Stewart and, indeed, Senator Grogan were there at the cost-of-living committee listening to these businesses and organisations that were saying, 'Please do not do this.' Instead, not only have they gone ahead with these causes; they have championed them. They have not paid any attention to the job creators in Australia who told them that it will be harder now to keep people in jobs. Minister Burke clearly does not care. This sort of complexity and the costs associated with it will be impossible for small businesses to deal with. It will only add to the cost-of-living crisis. As my colleague Paul Scarr said, this is going to make a bad situation worse.

The CEO of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia told the committee:

The impact of IR cannot be underestimated for small businesses. And let me just add a small-business flavour to it: it is the opportunity cost. The ability for small businesses to delight their customers is being undermined by this additional red tape—this cost of compliance. Not only are there higher costs to pass on but also you're potentially seeing a bit less innovation, a bit less creativity and a bit less excitement from your small businesses because they're worried about this big new rule book, the impact it's going to have on them and, if they make a mistake, what the implications of that will be. Where small-business employers do the wrong thing, there should be recourse.

The CEO went on to tell us that these changes:

… will run roughshod over many of the aspirations and goals of the white paper. It's really that simple. It's like you've installed a shiny new coach of a sporting team but all the players have been benched. The system's just working against itself. The left hand and the right hand are not talking together.

That was the CEO of COSBOA on 26 September last year.

How is making the system work against itself helping businesses to do their job—helping them to deliver cheaper food, cheaper energy and cheaper housing? If you're serious about dealing with the cost-of-living crisis—and let's not forget that this Prime Minister said not last new year but the new year before that his new year's resolution was to bring down the cost of living. He failed in that quest. How can you possibly set a system against itself if you want to deliver that cheaper food, cheaper energy and cheaper housing?

If we know that this bill will add complexity to a system that's already struggling to meet a demand that's driving up prices, why would we do this at the exact point where Australians are suffering the most from those prices? That CEO also said:

… small businesses employ three million Australians, so a thriving and dynamic small business sector is arguably the best thing for workers and their real wages in this country. It's the key to productivity … It's the key to sustainable jobs, secure jobs, having a dynamic small business sector. We were extremely disappointed that the modelling of the IR bill didn't pick up any of the real-world cost on small business.

Now, we in the coalition know that, for many Australians who were hoping to keep their jobs and earn more in the future, the last thing that they need is more red tape. Does a Labor government really, seriously think that these measures will make it easier for the small businesses that are employing millions of those Australians to do their jobs, easier for these businesses to grow or easier for them to hire more Australians? Dare I say it, the cat has been belled. The Governor of the Reserve Bank, just yesterday, forecast higher unemployment because of the policies that this government is implementing.

It's not just small businesses that it has impacted. Without a doubt, Australia and our Commonwealth budget benefit from the enormous mineral resources that our country exports. In recent times that, along with bracket creep, has been what's propped up our finances through record prices and record exports. But if Labor think that these operations are so big that, no matter how hard they hit them with these new regulations, these geese will still lay the golden eggs, that is not so.

The CEO of the Minerals Council also told the cost-of-living committee that the changes will be indiscriminate in their damage. She said:

You've got to keep a system that's flexible, that doesn't have rigidities in it and that allows for business models to thrive across the economy to make sure that it's highly productive. That's the sort of industrial relations system we need to have. You need to protect the most vulnerable in the economy. You can argue that the changes that have occurred over the last couple of years have addressed the issues that, fundamentally, we have wanted to see changed. This latest industrial relations tranche, however, does nothing more to assist the economy to be productive or to bring down the cost of living.

It's fascinating, isn't it, that the French finance minister to Louis XIV said that the art of taxation was to pluck the goose to obtain the largest number of feathers with the least amount of hissing. The same goes for industrial relations, and, my goodness, isn't that hissing! I think that maybe you've plucked one too many feathers here. It's productivity that will drive Australia into the next decade of luck and productivity, but you have put a handbrake on this. You have shackled our economy and essentially handicapped our growth. Any growth that we do experience will be in spite of a Labor government, not because of it. The RBA's warnings ring true.

Experts from Beyond Business Consultants have confirmed that this is a productivity-killing bill. Our productivity has already gone backwards, to 2017 levels, but Labor doesn't care. I'll tell you who does care: Professor Robertson, the dean and head of school at the business school of the University of Western Australia. He told the cost-of-living committee:

We are concerned about the industrial relations reforms bill that you were talking about before. I think that's going to increase labour costs and reduce productivity.

So it's not just the Liberal Party. You don't need to listen just to us to know that this is a bad bill that's going to drive up the cost of living. You can listen to small business. You can listen to big business. You can listen to academics. All of them are telling you of their view that this will make the cost-of-living crisis worse.

The Albanese Labor government's latest round of industrial relations will have a damaging impact on our economy and on your standard of living. The government, the Greens and Senator Pocock have let drop a number of last-minute amendments to this proposed legislation, which they're now ramming through in less than 24 hours without scrutiny. These amendments actually make this bad bill even worse overall.

This legislation would create extreme uncertainty for businesses which employ casual workers, particularly small businesses. It's estimated that we'll see prices for food delivery and ride-share services increase by 35 per cent. I hope everyone understands that the cost of their Ubers and their takeaway is going to go up by a third under this government because of this legislation. It will increase access of union officials to our workplaces across the country. The government has now introduced an amendment which will significantly increase uncertainty in the road transport sector, giving the Fair Work Commission significant new powers to set conditions for drivers.

In the last minutes, the government has also accepted the Greens amendment for a right to disconnect. What the hell will that mean? We don't understand it and neither does business, because there has been no scrutiny of this bill. You haven't provided any detail about how this will work or who it will apply to. That's because Labor is all about your rights and never about obligations. Obligations are just as important as rights. In a country with five time zones during the summer months, in a globally competitive economy, no-one has given a coherent answer on how this bill will increase productivity in the workplace. In a cost-of-living crisis that is exacerbated, when disposable incomes have gone backwards, the decision this government is making is making the problem worse. (Time expired)