Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I know one or two things about these issues that we are debating in the parliament this afternoon, and I do hope that there are a number of fair-minded people who will listen to this debate and make a decision on the basis of what is put to the parliament. I do believe that those fair-minded listeners and viewers this afternoon will come down on the side of not supporting the Higher Education Support Amendment (Removal of the Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements and National Governance Protocols Requirements and Other Matters) Bill 2008. What is wrong with allowing choice to any Australian in the decisions that they make in their lives? What is wrong with that? The Labor Party seems to believe that everyday Australians should not be allowed a choice. We have choice when we go shopping and we have choice when we go looking for a partner. Why should we not have choice when it comes to how we work? Any fair-minded person would say, ‘That seems a reasonable position.’

The former government found that universities were not allowing their workforce to have choice and that precluded their employees from making a better arrangement with their employer. I want to tell the parliament this afternoon about Norm Canton. Norm works for Buildings and Grounds at James Cook University—the premier university in the tropics in the world. James Cook University is in Townsville, the area that I represent in the Australian parliament, and I am very proud of James Cook University. But James Cook University had a closed mind in relation to how it would employ Norm Canton. Norm wanted to make an Australian workplace agreement with the university authorities because he thought that he could find a better way of working for the university and that he could earn more money because the arrangement that he would make would suit both him and the university. That seems like a fairly common-sense thing to do, doesn’t it? But the university would not allow that.

Fortunately, the Howard government put in place the higher education workplace relations requirements. All that those requirements said was that universities should offer Australian workplace agreements. Staff were not required to take them up—they were not even required to ask for them—but if they did want to consider an AWA then the university had to make that available. Norm Canton went to the authorities at James Cook University and said, ‘I’d like to negotiate an AWA for myself’—a single employee workplace agreement. Norm did, thanks to the Howard government. Do you know what happened? He got higher pay, he got better working conditions, the university had a better arrangement for when Norm worked and everybody was happy.

And now the Labor Party wants to take it all away. The Labor Party that claims to represent the workers of this country does not want the workers to have choice. That is a disgraceful position. But more than that—this was revealed by the budget last night, and it undermines what this particular bill is about—the Labor government’s backward-looking approach to workplace flexibility, meaning choice, has already cast a shadow over the Australian economy. This was revealed in the budget last night. Unemployment is predicted to rise to 4.75 per cent. We heard the absolutely incredible statement that Labor’s budget in the coming year will put 134,000 everyday Australians out of a job—and this is the party of the worker. How could that be? Under the former government, unemployment went to record lows. Now that the Labor Party is in, it is making conscious decisions to drive up unemployment. Gosh! When is the Australian public going to wake up? How can my Labor colleagues on the other side of the chamber support a budget that puts 134,000 everyday Australians out of work at a time when they are facing increased grocery prices, increased petrol prices and are wondering if they can own their own home anymore and how they are going to pay for their insurance? It is extraordinary.

In the history of Australia, last night’s budget was the highest-spending, highest-taxing budget that we have ever seen. And then to add, ‘And by the way we are going to put 134,000 people out of work as well,’ is extraordinary. When you link that in to what this particular bill is about you see the connection. This is the Labor Party, for ideological reasons, taking choice away from the Australian worker. I certainly feel very disheartened about that.

The other main part of the bill in relation to the national governance protocols requires that, as the Australian government provides virtually all of the money to run our universities, universities should conduct themselves properly in a governance sense. The Labor Party seems to think we should not have any control over a fundamental issue like that. I think the Australian people will understand that they need to think about this.

Back to my university, James Cook—and this, again, is where governance issues come in. Currently Central Queensland University, based in Rockhampton, is having significant financial problems. It may well be that it is having significant governance problems. I have certainly suggested that James Cook should be allowed by the Queensland government to take over CQU’s patch in Mackay. There is a synergy which happens with JCU Townsville and JCU Cairns—and it should be with JCU Mackay. Because of the difficulties CQU has got itself into, it may well have to be taken over by one of the universities in Brisbane.

I urge the Queensland government, in looking at these governance issues related to higher education, to look at the opportunity now presented for James Cook University to move its courses and its support to Mackay, a very significant city in North Queensland. I want the parliament to know in no uncertain terms—from me and from Norm Canton in Townsville—that the availability of AWAs in higher education has done a power of good and that we are disappointed that the current government wants to take away that power of good.

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