Business chiefs confront PM for taking economy ‘backwards’

The nation’s business chiefs will confront Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over economic policy by warning Australia is sliding backwards because federal workplace rules are hurting employers, building corporate pressure on the government to change course before the election.

Business Council of Australia chief Bran Black will tell Albanese corporate leaders think the country is “losing our way” due to Labor changes to employment laws as well as industry regulation that they blame for pushing up costs.

Business Council of Australia chief Bran Black (right) will tell PM Anthony Albanese corporate leaders think the country is “losing our way”.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Bloomberg

But the government is standing by its workplace laws despite the new assault on its economic agenda, one week after Minerals Council of Australia chief Tania Constable urged Labor to reverse what she called “reckless” workplace reform.

With the Coalition vowing to repeal some of the Labor workplace regime, Employment Minister Murray Watt warned on Monday that the salaries of casual workers and others would fall if Labor lost power at the next election.

The business council will step up its warnings on the key election issue at its annual dinner for corporate chiefs on Tuesday night, with Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers in the audience.

“Rather than feeling confident in our growing national prosperity, many CEOs feel we are losing our way,” Black says in a draft of his speech.

“Instead of taking the big steps on the things that matter, we are taking incremental but noticeable steps backwards.

“This shouldn’t be dismissed as talking Australia down. It’s a belief right across our membership that we can and must do better for our future generations.”

A week after Constable said the workplace laws were bringing conflict to every workplace in every industry, Black will also blast the industrial relations regime and warn that multi-employer bargaining is adding to costs because of the way it helps unions negotiate deals across entire industries.

Labor gained strong support from the union movement to bring in the multi-employer bargaining regime after the last election, raising industry fears that a single union could force the same wage deal on many different employers within the same sector.

The business group is ramping up its concerns after the Fair Work Commission approved a common wage deal for three coal-mining companies – Whitehaven, Peabody and Ulan – despite differences in the way they operate.

While the government said in November 2022 that mining would not be significantly impacted by the multi-employer bargaining laws, the business council sees the coal deal as a precedent that could be extended across mining and into other industries.

Labor is defending its handling of the economy after growth fell to just 0.2 per cent in the June quarter, taking the annual rate down to 1 per cent – the weakest performance since the 1991 recession, apart from the pandemic.

Unemployment is tipped to rise to 4.4 per cent by the middle of next year, according to Reserve Bank forecasts, after steadily increasing from 3.5 per cent in the middle of last year.

Black makes no personal criticism of Albanese and does not mention the Coalition in his draft speech, although the argument is overwhelmingly critical of Labor policies, including the attempt to set up a national environment protection authority.

“For a good job to be well-paid, it has to exist first,” he will say.

“Instead, we’re steadily increasing, not removing, regulation – making it harder to run a business.”

Naming the cost of living as the most pressing issue, Black advocates changes including cuts to regulation, more flexible workplace laws, simpler planning laws for new projects and a more efficient tax system, without elaborating on specific policy proposals.

Black also repeats the council’s longstanding call for a federal fund to pay the states and territories to undertake productivity-driving reform, without saying what those reforms might be.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume criticised the Labor workplace regime on Sunday and signalled changes if the Coalition took power, pledging to look at multi-party bargaining, casual definitions and the right to disconnect.

“These are unnecessary laws that’re adding more complexity to our system, rather than removing it,” she said on ABC’s Insiders program.

Watt said that would see workers lose rights granted under Labor, including the “right to disconnect” so employers could not make unreasonable contact after working hours.

“Now is the worst possible time for any government to be talking about cutting the pay of Australians when they’re facing such big cost‑of‑living pressures,” Watt said.

“That’s exactly what [Opposition Leader] Peter Dutton and the Coalition are talking about as we enter the next election.”

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