Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I made no reference to the Public Service. Given the budget forecast of 134,000 job losses, will the minister confirm that she has not commissioned or received any concerted economic analysis or modelling at all on the likely impact of the government’s workplace relations policy on unemployment, labour productivity, real wages, income distribution, economic growth, inflation or interest rates? Will the minister in fact direct her department, in conjunction with Treasury, to prepare a report on the economic impacts of the government’s workplace relations policies, including the eight specific economic outcomes I have already listed?

Further, I refer the minister to Budget Paper No. 2, which states that the government has allocated $13.3 million over four years to lodge collective agreements. Is it the intention of the Labor government to return to the lodgement of collective agreements via the Australian Industrial Registry?

I also refer to the significant cut in funding for the Workplace Authority of some $30 million for 2007-08. Given this significant cut, which results in a lack of education, advice and assistance for business about agreement making under the government’s system and a subsequent downturn in agreement making for all types of agreements, and given the fact that there is a substantial body of evidence—often referred to by the minister’s own department—that highlights the benefits to the economy of agreement making, can the minister explain how Forward with Fairness is going to address the downturn in agreement making and, in turn, flexibility in the workplace?

My next question relates to the application of the no disadvantage test. The Workplace Authority has allocated funding to the development of a no disadvantage test policy guide setting out how it will work. Will the minister answer yes or no as to whether the following terms and conditions can be modified or traded away, cashed in or removed under the government’s new no disadvantage test: uniform or laundry allowances, overtime or penalty rates, vehicle allowances, meal allowances, annual leave or sick leave, redundancy payments, rostering arrangements and long service leave entitlements?

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