Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let's wind the clock back, because that's what this legislation is attempting to do. It's winding us back to the dark ages of industrial thuggery in Australia. Going back to 1986, I was only 11. The Australian Bureau of Statistics—these are facts—recorded a total of 1,892 strikes across the country, involving more than half a million workers. Those strikes amounted to over a million working days lost. Businesses, including many small to medium businesses that could ill afford it, had to wear the cost of that low and lost productivity. In the year to June 2022 there were 52 disputes. That's 97 per cent less disruption than there was in the bad old days.

The industrial relations system isn't broken, but those opposite want to fix it, and by 'fix it' I mean change it to benefit their union mates. There's been plenty of talk from the other side about low-paid and insecure workers, but it's a smokescreen. If Labor really cared about lifting up low-paid and insecure workers, it would split the bill and get those elements passed. Instead, it has become the feel-good mantra the other side can keep spouting to avoid talking about the reality of the rest of this damaging and dangerous bill. These reforms will put unions back at the centre of industrial relations, remove choices for employers and workers, and we will be on a downward spiral of escalating disputes, strikes, loss of productivity—very important work productivity—and competitiveness.

In pursuing this payback to the unions, those opposite are also willing to trash the Hawke-Keating legacy. Even before the Hawke government was elected in 1983, they had struck a chord. Unions, who, from the 1970s, had used their power to push for ever higher over-award wage increases, were brought to heel. Industrial strikes, surging real wages, high inflation and a low-growth economy had to be addressed. The Prices and Incomes Accord saw unions agree to control wage demands to help get inflation under control. The Hawke government would compensate workers through a series of measures including tax relief and a compulsory retirement savings scheme. Workers would also benefit from a stronger economy and economic reforms to open Australia to competition and improve productivity. The accord lasted, in various iterations, until the mid-1990s.

In May 1986, Treasurer Paul Keating made his infamous banana republic reference. Keating told 2UE Sydney broadcaster John Laws on 14 May 1986:

If this government cannot get the adjustment, get manufacturing going again, and keep moderate wage outcomes and a sensible economic policy, then Australia is basically done for. We will end up being a third-rate economy ... a banana republic.

Keating was sounding the alarm bell, warning that things would get tougher unless reforms continued. Tariff cuts, deregulations and a shift away from centralised wage fixing were key elements, and by the late 1980s it was generally accepted that a more flexible and more productive economy would raise and maintain living standards for all. Accord Mark III, which came into effect in 1987, set out a minimum safety net for workers pay and conditions and allowed unions to negotiate at the enterprise level for higher wages tied to increased productivity. It is a principle that has remained at the core of wages policy ever since, and now it has been trashed.

Labor have made it clear they want to hand over all workplaces to the unions, including small and family businesses. Industry-wide bargaining will be devastating for the Australian economy, leading to widespread strike action. Labor promised higher wages but then delivered a first budget that didn't address wage growth. They don't have the stomach for the economic reforms required.

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