ADJOURNMENT: Workplace Relations

Senator NASH (New South Wales) (9.51 pm)—I rise tonight to talk about industrial relations reform. A recent report released by the World Economic Forum shows Australia has climbed from 14th to 10th in the World Economic Forum’s 2005 competitiveness ranking. The report said Australia moved up four places because of, among other things, its sound public finances and the innovative nature of its business sector. Discouragingly, Australia only ranked 77th on flexibility of wage determination and 75th on hiring and firing practices. For more than nine years, it has been a goal of the Liberal-National coalition government to bring about industrial reform—reform which will increase productivity and allow opportunities for flexibility in the workplace. If we are to remain internationally competitive, we need to make our workplace relations system simpler. We also need to make our workplace relations system fairer and we need to provide a better balance in the workplace for employees and employers. The Work Choices legislation will establish a national workplace relations system and will go a long way towards simplifying the 130 different pieces of industrial legislation and 4,000 different awards that operate across the country. The changes to the unfair dismissal laws are a particularly important part of this legislation. For years now, as I have travelled around different rural communities right across New South Wales—places like Tweed Heads, Tamworth, Temora and Tumut—small business owners keep saying to me, ‘We’d put more people on, but we just can’t do it because we can’t afford an unfair dismissal claim if it doesn’t work out.’ This is happening right across the state: everywhere I travel, employers are not game to put people on because of the current system. The new system will create jobs for the most marginal people in the work force by exempting companies with 100 employees or fewer from the unfair dismissal laws. The changes are sensible, they are practical, they allow for greater flexibility in the workplace and they will ensure that Australia’s productivity grows into the future. Workplace relations reform has been a long-held goal of The Nationals. For years, we have supported the move towards a more flexible workplace that serves the best interests of both employers and employees. In fact, seven weeks ago, in September, The Nationals federal council unanimously gave its support for workplace relations reform. We have seen a concerted scare campaign from the Labor Party and the unions, trying to terrify workers about the government’s changes. You do not have to be a Rhodes scholar to work out that the scare campaign is nothing more than Labor and the unions trying to protect their patch—a patch that has been in steady decline. Today less than one in five Australian workers are members of a union. Senator George Campbell interjecting— Senator NASH —Perhaps I should repeat that: today less than one in five Australian workers are members of a union. But the unions have firm control of the Australian Labor Party. Senator Boswell —They’ve certainly got it in the Senate. Senator NASH —Look at the Labor Party’s frontbench: 17 of them owe their political careers to the unions— Senator Boswell —They all owe them in the Senate. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Marshall) —Order! Senator Boswell, please don’t interject. Senator NASH —eight in this place and nine in the other place. And I believe Senator George Campbell owes his allegiance to the unions as well. In fact, there are 18 Labor senators in this place alone and 23 Labor MPs in the other place who owe their political careers to one union or another. That is 41 Labor politicians in the federal parliament beholden to their union masters. In fact, the entire ALP are beholden to their union masters. According to the Australian Electoral Commission, in 2003-04 the unions gave the ALP a whopping $47,135,361.37 in political donations. No wonder the ALP are so vigorously sticking up for their union mates. Senator George Campbell —Can you repeat that? Senator NASH —I think you already know. As the former Queensland Premier and Nationals great, the late Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, said to the ABC’s Four Corners program on 26 March 1985 when he was taking on the unions in Queensland, and I quote: ‘We want to get democracy in the whole system and that’s exactly what we’re doing.’ Well, it might be 20 years on, but the sentiment is the same. The Howard-Vaile government want to get democracy into the workplace relations system, and that is exactly what we are doing. Sir Joh was also spot-on when he gave the opening address to the HR Nicholls Society conference in June 1987 where the theme was ‘The light on the hill: industrial relations reform in Australia’. He said: In industrial relations issues, as in economic ones, the problems we see in Queensland cannot be solved by State action alone. It is critical for Queensland that the next Federal government creates an environment in which real industrial relations reform can occur. The Howard-Vaile government are working in the best interests of all Australians to get that real industrial relations reform that Sir Joh talked about, to get a fairer system for all—particularly for small business: those 1.2 million small businesses who currently employ 3.3 million Australians, the small businesses that make up about 95 per cent of all Australian businesses, the small businesses that dearly want to employ more people almost every day but will not because of the existing unfair dismissal laws. Can I just take a moment to talk about the extraordinary range of awards that exist and the disparity within those—one of the reasons why we need a fairer system. For example, awards applicable to the care of horses supplied by employees is $4 in some states, $3.50 in others and $5.50 in some others. The same distorted hotchpotch of a system also exists in providing allowances for bicycles. There is a higher allowance for bicycles than for horses. Under the national fast food retail award, a bicycle allowance is $9 per week, twice the cost of the allowance provided for a horse across the country. With a horse, an essential aid for many in country areas, there are grooming, feed and watering costs; why give an amount for maintaining a bicycle that is twice the amount per week for maintaining a horse? We need to make the system simpler. We need to make it fairer. We on this side are not beholden to the unions like Labor on the other side. We never have been; we never will be. In contrast, we are beholden to the Australian people—those who make jobs and those who take up jobs. This government will make the Australian workplace relations system fairer and provide a better balance in the workplace for employees and employers than currently exists— Senator George Campbell interjecting— Senator NASH —And the difference is we actually listen to the people, to what they want and what they tell us is going to make the system better. So perhaps a little listening from the other side might go towards making a better system—and perhaps coming up with a plan. Unlike Labor, we do have a plan to reform the workplace, to stop the confusion that exists with the myriad pieces of legislation, some of which I referred to earlier, and awards that exist right across the country. The Howard-Vaile government have Work Choices. Labor have nothing, rien, not a thing. This workplace relations reform, Work Choices, being put forward by the government is sensible, it is practical, it will allow greater flexibility in the workplace and it will ensure that Australia’s productivity will grow into the future.

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