Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister update the House on how the government’s workplace reforms are contributing to a stronger and more productive economy? What are the risks of any alternative policies?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the greatest ever member for Hasluck for the question. I feel a little disappointed that I did not get the title, but I know I have a lot of successful predecessors! An Econtech report has found that if the Labor Party is elected it will cost 300,000 jobs in the Australian economy, and interest rates will increase by 1.4 per cent. That is because the Labor Party wants to roll back the industrial relations reforms of this government. It would be the first significant roll-back of a major economic reform by a government in a generation and it would not come without cost: interest rates up a further 1.4 per cent and the loss of 300,000 jobs. That is because the Labor Party policy is about rolling back our reforms beyond 2006—beyond our reforms to the waterfront, beyond our 1996 reforms, even beyond the Keating reforms—and going back to pre-1993 reforms.

I came across an interesting article in the Canberra Times today. I never thought I would be standing here quoting the Canberra Times. The article is a repeat of what was said 10 years ago and reads:

The Australian Labor Party has formally declared it will be dumping many of the industrial relations policies of the former Keating government.

Opposition spokesman on industrial relations Bob McMullan said the approach of the next Labor government to industrial relations would be “distinctly and noticeably different”. He said the new approach would differ significantly from the approach of the former Keating government, making a deliberate turn away from enterprise-based arrangements and a return to collective bargaining underpinned by the traditional award system. The ALP would in future be pursuing industry-wide arrangements.

Pattern bargaining is back. That is what they said 10 years ago and that is what they say today. What would be their motivation for winding back a major reform in the economy for the first time in 30 years? The Labor Party’s policy, as we know, is written by the ACTU, it is owned by the ACTU and it is funded by the trade union bosses—and 70 per cent of the Labor Party frontbench are former union officials. There is concern in the broader community. Listen to this, Mr Speaker. It is reported today that one commentator with an expert knowledge of the unions said that the Labor Party’s policy is all about heading towards compulsory unionism. He stated:

It consolidates the power of the unions and of course it will be those unions linked to the Labor Party.

You might think that this is a right-wing commentator, Mr Speaker, someone with an opinion more in the Adam Smith mould than any other, but this person went on to say:

I don’t see much in the Labor Party’s policy for union members to get overjoyed about. I do see a lot for union officials to get overjoyed about in terms of opening up right of entry access.

Those are the words of the head of the Australian Nursing Federation in Western Australia. He is saying that the Labor Party’s policy is all about the union bosses. It is not about the members of the union; it is not about the workers of Australia. The Labor Party’s industrial relations policy is all about the union bosses. The President of the ANF in Western Australia said he did not want to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars to effectively support Labor’s industrial relations policy because it would shore up power for unions linked to Labor. This is not some flippant right-wing commentator or anyone else who, in a dispassionate way, may be passing an assessment on the Labor Party’s policy; this is a senior union official saying the Labor Party’s industrial relations policy is all about the union bosses. That is why they want to roll back industrial relations reform. It is not about the workers because, for the workers, wages have gone up since our industrial relations reforms. It is not about those most vulnerable in the community, because, for those people, the number of jobs in Australia has increased dramatically—387,000 new jobs, 84 per cent of them full time, since we introduced our Work Choices reforms. It is all about the union bosses; it is for the union bosses—the same union bosses that will take control of the Labor Party, the same union bosses that control a weak Leader of the Opposition.