Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ludwig, the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Can the minister explain to the Senate how the Rudd government’s new Forward with Fairness policy delivers on Labor’s election promise to do away with Work Choices and builds on the transition act, enacted in March, which ended the making of AWAs, introduced a genuine no disadvantage test for agreements and commenced award modernisation?

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Collins for her question in relation to the government delivering on its election promises, set out in the policy Forward with Fairness. The Rudd government is delivering on its commitment to creating a fair, flexible and transparent workplace relations system that achieves the right balance between employers and employees. The new workplace relations system will ensure Australia is competitive and prosperous without undermining workplace rights and guaranteed minimum standards.

The Rudd government is throwing out the previous government’s extreme Work Choices laws, which were rejected by the Australian people at the last election. We are introducing a new system with fairer laws that balance the needs of employees, the unions and employers, a system that ensures all employers and employees have access to transparent, clear and simple information on rights and responsibilities, that gives Australian employers confidence with a simple, fair dismissal system for small business, that protects employees by outlining clear minimum wages and by assisting low-paid and vulnerable employees and, of course, that ensures employees’ freedom of association within the workplace.

The Rudd government is fixing the damage caused to Australian workers and Australian workplaces by the former Howard government. We are delivering on a system that will allow employers to get on with growing their businesses and will allow employees to get on with their jobs. The government’s new workplace relations laws will get the balance right by providing a strong safety net for employees, by promoting workplace flexibility and by creating a new bargaining system backed by good faith bargaining rules and tough sanctions against unprotected industrial action. And, of course, it will bring more Australians into the bargaining process and provide strong but simple protections against unfair dismissals. In complete contrast to the former Liberal government, the Rudd government has engaged in an unprecedented level of consultation. (Time expired)

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister further inform the Senate on how Forward with Fairness will benefit both employers and employees, unlike the previous government’s Work Choices legislation, which stripped away employees’ most basic rights and conditions?

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The legacy of the previous government in workplace relations was a system of laws which stripped away conditions and take-home pay of working Australians. The result was a legislative disaster that no amount of taxpayer funded advertising could persuade Australians otherwise than that it was unfair legislation, and it was condemned to the dustbin of history when those Australians could get to the election. Work Choices was about Australian workplace agreements that denied employees conditions and ensured that their basic rights and conditions would be stripped away.

We are reinstating a fair industrial relations system. We are ensuring that there will be a comprehensive safety net for employees dealing with wages and conditions which underpin agreement making. The system will embody the Australian value of the fair go all round and is based on our belief that economic prosperity and a decent standard of living for all go hand in hand. (Time expired)

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Can the minister explain another aspect of Forward with Fairness and confirm to the Senate that the new policy will not provide for individual statutory agreements and will ensure that employees can focus on collective bargaining at an enterprise level, again in contrast to the Work Choices legislation, which locked employees into unfair statutory individual agreements?

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under the new workplace relations system there will be no one-sided individual statutory agreements. Employees will be free to bargain collectively with the employer in good faith. Good faith bargaining obligations will be simple and effective and designed to enhance the bargaining process. They will ensure that the parties focus on the matters that need to be addressed in order to reach agreement at the workplace. They are about what is best for the workplace and for raising productivity. Fair Work Australia can decide disputes over the proposed scope of agreements, and arbitration will be available where parties disobey good faith bargaining obligations.

Work Choices gave no effective right to bargain collectively. The government’s new workplace relations system has enterprise bargaining at the heart in order to drive productivity. The Leader of the Opposition, on the other hand, has refused to say whether he remains committed to AWAs or whether he still believes that individual statutory agreements will undercut— (Time expired)