Mark Arbib (NSW, 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. It is on a topic that I know both sides of the chamber have great interest in: industrial relations. Can the minister inform the Senate how the Rudd government’s Forward with Fairness policy will ensure that employers and employees will have a fair and balanced framework of rights and obligations that is easy to understand and that will reduce the compliance burden on business?

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

I thank Senator Arbib. I know he has a deep interest in industrial relations. This is the Australian government’s new era of workplace relations. Yesterday the Rudd government moved forward with its plan to scrap the disastrous Work Choices legislation of the Howard era. In fact, even the opposition are now distancing themselves from the Howard legacy—

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Some of them.

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

but maybe not all. We delivered on our promise to the Australian people at the last election to replace Work Choices with the Labor policy Australians endorsed, Forward with Fairness. Labor’s policy provides for fair enterprise bargaining, because senators on this side realise that to have fairness in the workplace you also have to have fairness in the industrial relations system.

We are condemning individual statutory agreements to the scrap heap of history, along with Work Choices. We are going to introduce good faith bargaining—something that is a distant song for the Howard era—less regulation regarding the content of agreement making, the creation of a single stream of agreement making and a streamlined process for the approval of agreements. Of course, that will reduce the compliance burden for business. Labor will create a new independent umpire, Fair Work Australia, to facilitate bargaining for the low paid, because we on this side of the chamber are here to look after the low paid, unlike those opposite during the Howard era who punished the low paid.

Under Work Choices, employers and employees had to navigate seven agencies. Fair Work Australia will bring those agencies together in a one-stop shop to provide the public with practical information and assistance on workplace issues and to ensure compliance within workplace laws. Forward with Fairness will provide for working Australians to take unfair dismissal action should that be necessary. The new system will remove the— (Time expired)

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question, and I note the silence on the other side of the chamber. Can the minister inform the Senate how the new workplace relations system will ensure that awards are restored and that they contain a fair and decent safety net of conditions?

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

The Liberal Party introduced a system of workplace relations that truly misrepresented Australian values. It forced it onto the Australian people, and when Australians had an opportunity to say no, at the last election, they did so. The Liberals wanted awards to wither away. What we on this side of the chamber say is that modern awards will play a valuable role in industrial relations. They will ensure not only that employees have the effective right to bargain collectively but that they will also be supported by standards that apply to all employees covered by the federal award system. The Rudd government will ensure modern awards include minimum wages in classifications and types of employment, overtime rates, penalty rates, allowances, superannuation and other matters to ensure that we have a truly modern award system. It will also include 10 national employment standards to ensure that not only issues such as public holidays— (Time expired)

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Most importantly, can the minister confirm to the Senate why it is necessary that the coalition pass the new Forward with Fairness policy, reject Work Choices, which the Australian public voted out at the last election, and ensure that we create a truly national system?

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

The electorate endorsed our policy at the last election and voted to ensure that Work Choices would be dead—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, on both sides!

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

As I was saying, the electorate voted in overwhelming numbers to ensure that Work Choices was dead, and Mr Malcolm Turnbull said that the coalition would not vote against the legislation. He admitted Work Choices is dead and that the Australian people have spoken. I would encourage those on the other side in the Senate to heed what their leader has said.

But what amendments will the coalition consider? They have said they may still want to tinker. But what they really want to do is to bring back those extreme industrial relations laws that the Howard government introduced. Those on the other side of the chamber do not want to let go of the Howard legacy. They want to ensure that the workplace relations Forward with Fairness legislation is not implemented in full. (Time expired)