Bill Shorten’s push to save Sunday pay

WHAT do you care about most? What Bill Shorten did in 2003 or what’s happening to your pay right now?

ANALYSIS

WHAT do you care about most? What Bill Shorten did in 2003 or what’s happening to your pay right now?

That’s the broad question Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is putting to the electorate today as he finally reaches the sharp end of the Coalition’s campaign to reduce trade union power.

One prong is aimed directly at Opposition Leader Shorten and deals he made back when he was Victorian and national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union.

The offensive against “secret deals” is pointed in comparison to the relatively dull debate late last year on reviving the Australian Building and Construction Commission and imposing tighter governance on registered organisations.

It will rile Labor and cause it some electoral damage. But it will not be the knockout blow the Prime Minister might be seeking, because Labor will just keep talking about penalty rates.

ALP focus group surveys show that when asked about workplace policies voters respond to what affects them directly, in particular their wages.

The Turnbull offensive today came as Mr Shorten introduced Labor legislation to preserve Sunday penalty rates reduced by the Fair Work Commission.

That doesn’t mean Malcolm Turnbull and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash don’t have hefty cases to mount.

The Government has a range of dubious practices harvested from the Haydon Royal Commission on Industrial Relations and even though the inquiry reported 14 months ago some elements remain worthy of debate.

However, that might not distract voters from concentrating on their own workplace circumstances.

And the royal commission made no adverse findings against Mr Shorten.

The Government concentrated on what the Prime Minister called “secret payments” which were “utterly unacceptable”.

“The law applies to all Australians and it applies to unions,” said Mr Turnbull.

“We’ve seen Sally McManus (secretary) of the ACTU say that the law should not apply to unions, unless they agree with it. Well that’s not the rule of law.

“That’s the rule of unions. Bill Shorten has said he wants to run the country like a union leader. That’s not the approach of a prime minister, that’s not the approach of the leader of a nation whose foundation is freedom, democracy and the rule of law.”

The two instances the Government has raised from the royal commission findings were from Cleanevent and Chiquita Mushrooms.

The Cleanevent enterprise bargain saw cleaners lose penalty rates — saving the company $2 million a year — but the AWU receive $25,000 a year in “union fees” from the company.

This agreement was negotiated by then Victorian union secretary Cesar Melhem.

Mr Shorten helped negotiated the Chiquita Mushrooms deal for the company to pay the AWU $4000 a month for “union fees” and to save the company some $3.5 million a year in payroll and Work Cover expenses.

Minister Cash today called Mr Shorten “one of the worst offenders”.

“This is a real test for Bill Shorten, because Bill Shorten says he believes in the worker,” she told reporters.

“Yet time and time again, by his actions, he confirms for the Australian people he is only interested in big unions being able to do deals with big businesses.”

All of which has been an invitation for Labor to take an equally pointed view of Malcolm Turnbull, and a revival of the ghost of WorkChoices.

“Malcolm Turnbull, when he spoke on the WorkChoices bill which he supported and voted for, said we need to lower wages in this country so they are as low as possible,” said shadow employment minister Brendan O’Connor today.

“He effectively said that loaves of bread and labour costs should be at their lowest point to let the market determine these matters.

“Well, that’s not Labor’s view. That is not the Australian Public’s view. We believe in a fair wage, a decent wage. We believe people deserve to have a decent life. A good quality of life. And that can only come about from decent wages.”