John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Pursuant to standing order 166, I present the government’s response to the report of the Employment, Workplace Relations and Education References Committee on workplace agreements which was presented to the President on 20 June 2008. In accordance with the terms of the standing order, the publication of the document was authorised. In accordance with the usual practice and with the concurrence of the Senate, I ask that the government response be incorporated in Hansard.

The response read as follows—

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO THE SENATE EMPLOYMENT, WORKPLACE RELATIONS AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE REPORT WORKPLACE AGREEMENTS

On 23 June 2005, the Senate referred an inquiry into workplace agreements to the Employment, Workplace Relations and Education References Committee (the Committee) with a reporting date of 31 October 2005.

The Committee’s terms of reference included issues which the Government announced would be part of the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Bill 2005, however full details of this Bill were not available to the Committee before the reporting date.

When preparing the report on Agreement Making, the Committee was asked to ascertain whether the then Government’s proposed agreement making system would meet the social and economic needs of all Australians. While the report made no recommendations, it did note a number of key concerns about the then proposed Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005.

Key concerns raised by Labor Senators in the majority report included the importance of a continuing role for awards in Australia, a need to assist employees in the bargaining process, a need to include protections for vulnerable workers and protections for employees in relation to excessive hours of work.  In addition, it was noted that the then Government’s proposals were not designed to create long term productivity and were not accompanied by any supporting empirical economic evidence.

These important concerns were ignored by the previous Government.  However they have been taken into consideration by the Rudd Government in formulating its policy for Australia’s new workplace relations system.  Legislation to commence the transition to this new system was introduced on 13 February, passed on 19 March and commenced on 27 March 2008.

The Government has committed to a workplace relations system that provides fairness, flexibility and encourages productivity, including:

• a uniform national workplace relations system for the private sector;
• a strong safety net of terms and conditions of employment including 10 legislated National Employment Standards and modern, simplified awards;
• simpler bargaining and collective agreement making arrangements;
• a range of workplace arrangements including collective agreements with individual flexibility clauses and common law contracts;
• an end to the making of new Australian Workplace Agreements which have caused unfairness to employees and a bureaucratic backlog;
• a new genuinely independent umpire and one stop shop called Fair Work Australia;
• a simpler and fairer unfair dismissal system which balances the rights of employees to be protected from unfair dismissal, with the need for employers to manage their workforce, and to ensure a faster, less costly and less complex process for all. The Government’s unfair dismissal system will include specific measures for small business including a new Fair Dismissal Code.

The Government intends to introduce legislation to implement these commitments in 2008.

The Rudd Government is committed to developing a simpler, fairer and more productive workplace relations system for Australia’s future.